Disclosure context

About Blackbyte

BlackByte is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that emerged in October 2021, primarily motivated by financial gain through double extortion tactics targeting organizations across multiple sectors. The group is suspected to operate from Russia or former Soviet states based on their use of Russian-language forums and avoidance of targeting organizations in Commonwealth of Independent States countries, though they maintain no confirmed links to other established ransomware families. BlackByte operators typically gain initial access through vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers, phishing campaigns, and exploitation of remote desktop protocol (RDP) services, employing tools such as Cobalt Strike for lateral movement and data exfiltration before deploying their custom ransomware payload that uses AES-256 encryption with RSA-2048 key protection. The group has demonstrated particular focus on critical infrastructure sectors, with the FBI and CISA issuing joint advisories in February 2022 highlighting attacks against organizations in government, healthcare, manufacturing, and education sectors, including notable incidents affecting San Francisco's transportation authority and multiple healthcare systems across the United States. BlackByte remains active as of 2024, continuing to evolve their tactics and maintain their leak site for publishing stolen data from victims who refuse to pay ransoms. The group has been linked to 147 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on October 4, 2021; most recent post July 30, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 7, 2023Chambersburg Area School District listed by Blackbyteon 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, Chambersburg Area School District is reported in United States, a country with 7,392 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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Chambersburg Area School District

Claimed by Blackbyte · listed 3 years ago

32m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Sep 7, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Blackbyte
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Sep 7, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Chambersburg Area School District is a public school district serving approximately 10,000 students across 250 square miles in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, encompassing the Borough of Chambersburg and several surrounding townships. The district operates multiple elementary, middle, and high schools, along with a virtual academy, and serves a diverse student population including a significant English Language Learner community. It provides a full range of K-12 academic, extracurricular, nutritional, health, and special services.

Industry: K-12 Public Education
Address: Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, United States
Employees: 1001-5000

Attack summary

Severity: critical — The district serves ~10,000 students; a public school district holds large volumes of regulated PII including minor students' records, health/medical forms, immunization data, special education records (FERPA/IDEA protected), and employee PII. Data has been published, confirming exfiltration of sensitive data at scale involving minors.

BlackByte claims to have attacked the Chambersburg Area School District and the disclosed status indicates data has been published, suggesting exfiltration of district data. The leak post does not specify ransom demands or data size, but the publication of the post under 'data_published' status implies stolen data has been or is being released.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Student records
Employee/HR records
Financial and budget documents
Health services records
Immunization and medical forms
Special education/mandated services documents
Payroll and benefits information
Contracts and agreements
Student registration data
ESL and family contact information

What the group claims

The Chambersburg Area School District covers 250 square miles in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, near the center of the Cumberland Valley. More than 61,000 people live in the district, which is composed of the Borough of Chambersburg, Greene, Hamilton, Letterkenny, and Lurgan townships, and most of Guilford Township. The Chambersburg Area School District has a rich and important history. We are fortunate to have almost 10,000 students of many different backgrounds and nations of origin. Just in the past several years, our English Language Learners have increased from approximately 500 to 1000 students or 10% of our student population.

Sources

Victim sitecasdonline.org/

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.