Disclosure context

About Karakurt

Karakurt is a ransomware group that emerged in December 2022, operating primarily as a data extortion threat actor with financial motivations rather than traditional file encryption. The group's origin and affiliations remain largely undocumented by major cybersecurity agencies, though their operational patterns suggest they function as an independent entity rather than a confirmed ransomware-as-a-service operation. Karakurt employs data theft and extortion tactics, focusing on exfiltrating sensitive information from victim networks before demanding payment under threat of public disclosure, representing a pure extortion model that bypasses traditional encryption-based ransomware approaches. The group has targeted 74 known victims across multiple sectors, with particular focus on healthcare, education, manufacturing, energy, and professional services organizations, primarily affecting entities in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, and India. Based on available reporting from established cybersecurity agencies and researchers, Karakurt appears to remain active as of recent assessments, though comprehensive intelligence on their specific attack vectors, tools, and major campaigns remains limited in publicly documented sources from CISA, FBI, and major security research organizations. The group has been linked to 74 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on December 11, 2022; most recent post September 22, 2023. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

April 24, 2023Winona Powder Coating listed by Karakurton the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Manufacturing sector, which has 2,458 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Winona Powder Coating is reported in India, a country with 255 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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Winona Powder Coating

Claimed by Karakurt · listed 3 years ago

37m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Apr 24, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Karakurt
Status: Data leaked
Country: India
Sector: Manufacturing
Listed on leak site: Apr 24, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Winona Powder Coating is described as the largest provider of finishing services in the Northern Indiana/Southern Michigan region of the United States. The company specializes in E-Coat and Powder Coat finishes for industrial or manufacturing clients. Based on the leak post, it employs a workforce whose personal records were maintained in company systems.

Industry: Industrial Surface Finishing & Coating Services
Address: Northern Indiana/Southern Michigan region, USA

Attack summary

Severity: critical — Confirmed exfiltration and publication of regulated PII at scale including SSNs and DOBs for employees, combined with financial records and business contracts, meets the threshold for critical severity under data breach regulations (e.g., GLBA, state breach notification laws).

Karakurt claims to have exfiltrated data including employee PII (SSN, date of birth, addresses, phone numbers), ongoing project details with client contacts and contracts, and financial/accounting documentation. The post indicates the data has been published, with no mention of encryption.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Employee Social Security Numbers (SSN)
Employee dates of birth
Employee home addresses
Employee phone numbers
Ongoing project details
Client contacts
Contracts
Financial documentation
Accounting records

What the group claims

Winona Powder Coating is the largest provider of finishing services in the Northern Indiana/Southern Michigan region. We specialize in E-Coat and Powder Coat finishes. This is another example of a business that doesn't care about ts employees' personal information. Almost a full set of information for each worker: SSN, DOB, address, phone ... Besides that we have Winona's ongoing project details with contacts and contracts. As well as their financial and accounting documentations. Much to see. You are welcome to check that.

Sources

Leak posthttps://3f7nxkjway3d223j27lyad7v5cgmyaifesycvmwq7i7cbs23lb6llryd.onion/companies/6791b765-ab1d-46fb-b11b-ee45e441b541

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.