Disclosure context

About Kairos

Kairos is a recently emerged ransomware group first observed in November 2024 that appears to be primarily financially motivated, having targeted approximately 75 victims across multiple sectors and countries. The group's origin and potential affiliations remain unclear due to limited public documentation from established threat intelligence sources, and it is unknown whether they operate as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model or as an independent entity. Based on available targeting data, Kairos appears to focus their operations primarily on English-speaking countries including the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and Canada, with additional activity observed in Germany, while their sector targeting spans education, healthcare, agriculture and food production, and business services, though specific attack methodologies, initial access vectors, and encryption techniques have not been publicly documented by major security organizations. Given the group's recent emergence in late 2024, there are no widely reported notable campaigns or high-profile incidents documented by CISA, FBI, or established security research firms. As of current reporting, Kairos appears to remain active based on their recent first observation date, though comprehensive threat intelligence profiles from major security organizations have not yet been published due to the group's nascent operational timeline. The group has been linked to 86 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 13, 2024; most recent post May 15, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

August 5, 2025melland.bright-futures.co.uk listed by Kairoson the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 694 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, melland.bright-futures.co.uk is reported in United Kingdom, a country with 902 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

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.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Melland High School

listed as melland.bright-futures.co.uk · Claimed by Kairos · listed 10 months ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Aug 5, 2025
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Kairos
Status: Data leaked
Country: United Kingdom
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Aug 5, 2025

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Melland High School is a specialist secondary school serving pupils aged 11–19 with diverse special educational needs, located in central and east Manchester, UK. It operates as part of the Bright Futures Educational Trust and functions as a National Support School, providing both direct education and support services to mainstream high schools in its region.

Industry: Education – Special Educational Needs (SEN) Secondary School

Attack summary

Severity: medium — Data has been published by the threat actor (disclosed_status = 'data_published'), indicating confirmed exfiltration. However, the absence of specific proof files, detailed data inventory, or evidence of sensitive data types (e.g., student PII, medical records) in the available materials limits the assessment. As a school, potential exposure of student and staff personal data exists, but severity cannot be elevated without explicit confirmation.

The Kairos group claims to have attacked Melland High School; however, no specific details regarding encryption, exfiltration, or data types are disclosed in the leak post excerpt provided.

medium

What the group claims

UK - Melland High School

Sources

Source

Indexed 10 months 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.