Was Clearwinds hit by ransomware?

Clearwinds was listed by the ALPHV/BlackCat 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 ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group?

ALPHV/BlackCat 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 Clearwinds breach?

ALPHV/BlackCat published data attributed to Clearwinds. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Clear Winds Technologies

listed as Clearwinds · Claimed by ALPHV/BlackCat · listed 3 years ago

30m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedDec 30, 2023
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: ALPHV/BlackCat
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Technology
Listed on leak site: Dec 30, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Clear Winds Technologies is an Alabama-based managed IT services provider founded in 2001, serving businesses across multiple sectors including automotive, education, finance, government, healthcare, and legal. They offer managed IT services, cloud solutions, cybersecurity, VoIP, structured cabling, and IT project work, with a team of 100+ IT professionals providing 24/7 support.

Industry: Managed IT Services & Cybersecurity
Employees: 100+
Founded: 2001

Attack summary

Severity: medium — The victim is an MSP with access to sensitive customer infrastructure and data (financial, healthcare, government clients per their site), but the leak post provides no proof files, no data samples, no confirmation of exfiltration, and no specifics on what was compromised. Classification as medium reflects the operational risk of MSP compromise and the sensitive nature of potential downstream victims, balanced against the absence of published evidence.

ALPHV/BlackCat claims to have compromised Clear Winds Technologies. The leak post does not specify whether data was exfiltrated, encrypted, or both, nor does it detail what information was accessed.

medium

What the group claims

We provide the reliable and responsive IT support for your organization’s everyday IT needs. Clear Winds is an Alabama based IT company that has served business IT needs for 20+ years!

Sources

Victim siteclearwinds.net/

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 ALPHV/BlackCat

ALPHV, also known as BlackCat or Noberus, is a sophisticated ransomware-as-a-service operation that emerged in November 2021 and quickly became one of the most prolific ransomware groups globally, driven by financial motivations and responsible for compromising over 930 victims worldwide. The group is believed to be operated by Russian-speaking cybercriminals and represents an evolution of the BlackMatter ransomware operation, operating under a RaaS model that recruits experienced affiliates from other disbanded ransomware groups. ALPHV employs a multi-faceted attack methodology utilizing various initial access vectors including compromised Remote Desktop Protocol credentials, phishing campaigns, and exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities, followed by deployment of their Rust-based ransomware payload that supports both Windows and Linux environments, while consistently employing double extortion tactics that involve data theft prior to encryption and threats to publish stolen information on their leak site. Notable campaigns include high-profile attacks against critical infrastructure and major corporations across healthcare, finance, and energy sectors, with the group demanding ransoms ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, prompting the FBI and CISA to issue multiple advisories warning of their targeting of critical infrastructure organizations. As of early 2024, ALPHV remains active despite ongoing law enforcement efforts, continuing to evolve their tactics and maintain their position as one of the most significant ransomware threats globally. The group has been linked to 1,662 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 9, 2021; most recent post March 3, 2024. The operation is currently inactive.

Also tracked as: ALPHV, BlackCat, Noberus.

Timeline of this disclosure

December 30, 2023Clearwinds listed by ALPHV/BlackCaton the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by ALPHV/BlackCat

ALPHV/BlackCat has been linked to 1,662 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full ALPHV/BlackCat dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Technology sector, which has 3,549 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Clearwinds is reported in United States, a country with 11,033 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by ALPHV/BlackCat means Clearwinds 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 ALPHV/BlackCat'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.