Was Graceworks Lutheran Services hit by ransomware?

Graceworks Lutheran Services was listed by the Royal ransomware operation (United States), and stolen data was published on the group's leak site. Darkfield tracks this disclosure with the original leak post, screenshot and group context.

Who is the Royal ransomware group?

Royal is a ransomware operator tracked by Darkfield. See the full operator dossier for its known victims, sectors targeted, IOCs and leak-site infrastructure.

What data was leaked in the Graceworks Lutheran Services breach?

Royal published data attributed to Graceworks Lutheran Services (~45 GB), around 486.880 Files records. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Graceworks Lutheran Services

Claimed by Royal · listed 3 years ago

45 GB

Data size

486.880 Files records

40m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedMar 23, 2023
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Royal
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Non-Profit
Listed on leak site: Mar 23, 2023
Data size: 45 GB
Records: 486.880 Files

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Graceworks Lutheran Services is a nonprofit organization founded in 1926 and headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, dedicated to supporting older adults and individuals with disabilities. Its services include assisted living (Bethany Village), in-home nursing and therapy, disability support, enhanced living programs, and hospice care. The organization operates across multiple program lines and has served the greater Dayton community for nearly a century.

Industry: Nonprofit Senior Care & Social Services
Address: 6430 Inner Mission Way, Dayton, OH 45459
Founded: 1926

Attack summary

Severity: critical — The group claims confirmed exfiltration of 45 GB of clinical patient records (regulated health/PII data under HIPAA) at scale (~486,880 files), combined with financial, HR, and executive communications data, and the disclosure status is 'data_published', indicating the data has already been released publicly.

The Royal ransomware group claims to have exfiltrated approximately 45 GB comprising 486,880 files, including clinical patient records, full financial audits dating back to 1995, top management email contents, HR and employee documents, and accounting records, with data stated as already published.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Clinical patient records (personal information)
Financial audits (1995–present)
Top management email contents
Employee documents
HR records
Accounting records
Unspecified documents referencing political figures

What the group claims

Founded in 1929, Graceworks Lutheran Services is a lutheran social services organization that operates assisted living facilities. Do not be surprised that the company is engaged in charity - it's just a front. Maybe they are involved in money laundering - who knows...We have at our disposal the contents of all email addresses of the top management, full financial audits from 1995 to the present, 45GB or 486,880 Files of personal patients information (clinical) and even documents related to President Biden - very entertaining. Beside this, we have finance, employee documents, accounting, HR and much more others.Enjoy!

Sources

Victim sitegraceworks.org
Leak posthttp://royal4ezp7xrbakkus3oofjw6gszrohpodmdnfbe5e4w3og5sm7vb3qd.onion/QxMxuec8b2SkPw9D6RIOKeSX5wWkGuS9

Source

Indexed 3 years ago

This page surfaces a public ransomware disclosure indexed by Darkfield. Original posts come from the operator's own leak site; we cross-check against ransomware.live, RansomLook and RansomWatch where applicable. Share this URL freely.

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Disclosure context

About Royal

Royal is a financially motivated ransomware group that emerged in November 2022, quickly establishing itself as a significant threat with over 200 documented victims across multiple sectors. The group is believed to operate independently rather than as a ransomware-as-a-service model, though their exact country of origin remains unclear based on publicly available intelligence. Royal primarily gains initial access through phishing campaigns and exploitation of remote desktop protocols, subsequently deploying custom ransomware that encrypts victim files while exfiltrating sensitive data for double extortion tactics. The group has demonstrated a preference for targeting critical infrastructure and public services, with notable attacks against educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and government entities primarily in the United States, though they have also significantly impacted organizations across Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and France. Their encryption methodology involves custom-built malware that systematically encrypts files while maintaining persistence on compromised networks. As of recent reporting from federal agencies including CISA and FBI advisories, Royal remains an active threat with ongoing campaigns targeting organizations across their preferred sectors, particularly focusing on entities with limited cybersecurity resources that may be more likely to pay ransom demands. The group has been linked to 211 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 4, 2022; most recent post July 19, 2023. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

March 23, 2023Graceworks Lutheran Services listed by Royalon the group's public leak site

Data size: 45 GB
Records: 486.880 Files

Other recent disclosures by Royal

Royal has been linked to 211 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Royal dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Non-Profit sector, which has 45 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Graceworks Lutheran Services is reported in United States, a country with 11,033 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Royal means Graceworks Lutheran Services appeared on a ransomware extortion site and data attributed to it has been published. If this is your organisation, or a supplier you depend on, the priority is to confirm the intrusion and contain it before the window to act closes.

Engage your incident-response team and preserve forensic evidence before remediating — do not wipe affected systems first.
Force a password reset and revoke active sessions for exposed accounts; rotate any credentials, API keys or certificates that may have been in the stolen data.
Assess regulatory notification duties (GDPR, NIS2, sector regulators) — many carry a 72-hour reporting clock from awareness.
Report the incident to your national CERT, CISA (United States), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on Royal's leak site and across paste and breach channels, and brief downstream partners who may be exposed through you.

How we know this. Darkfield monitors public ransomware leak sites continuously, archiving every new disclosure and the data later released against the victim. Each entry on this page is sourced from the operator's own publication and cross-checked against complementary OSINT feeds (RansomLook, ransomware.live, RansomWatch). We do not collect or host stolen data — only the metadata, timestamps and screenshots needed to make the public disclosure searchable and accountable. Records here are corrected when the original post is edited, retracted, or merged with another disclosure.