Disclosure context

About lapsus$

Lapsus$ is a financially motivated cybercriminal group that emerged in December 2021, gaining notoriety for their aggressive extortion tactics and high-profile targeting of major corporations and government entities. The group is believed to have originated from South America, particularly Brazil, with suspected ties to young hackers operating independently rather than as a traditional ransomware-as-a-service operation, though they have demonstrated sophisticated coordination and insider recruitment capabilities. Lapsus$ primarily relies on social engineering techniques, SIM swapping, and insider threats to gain initial access to target networks, often recruiting employees through bribes or coercion rather than relying on traditional malware delivery methods, and they frequently employ data theft and public leak tactics for extortion rather than always deploying encryption-based ransomware. The group has conducted notable attacks against major technology companies including Microsoft, Nvidia, Samsung, and Okta, as well as targeting organizations across France, the United States, Brazil, Germany, and Canada, with a particular focus on consumer services, education, government facilities, and critical manufacturing sectors, leading to significant law enforcement attention and arrests of suspected members. Following arrests of key members by Brazilian and UK authorities in 2022, the group's activity has significantly diminished, though some security researchers suggest remnants may still be operational under different identities. The group has been linked to 21 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on December 10, 2021; most recent post May 10, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

March 1, 2026FR Ministry of Agriculture listed by lapsus$on the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Public Sector sector, which has 259 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, FR Ministry of Agriculture is reported in France, a country with 472 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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FR Ministry of Agriculture

Claimed by lapsus$ · listed 3 months ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Mar 1, 2026
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: lapsus$
Status: Data leaked
Country: France
Sector: Public Sector
Listed on leak site: Mar 1, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

The French Ministry of Agriculture (Ministère de l'Agriculture et de la Souveraineté alimentaire) is a central government body responsible for developing and implementing agricultural, forestry, fisheries, food safety, and rural development policy in France. It oversees regulatory frameworks for farming, animal welfare, and agri-food markets, and funds research and agricultural education. The ministry operates at national scale with thousands of civil servants across metropolitan France and overseas territories.

Industry: Government – Agriculture & Food Policy
Address: 78 rue de Varenne, 75349 Paris SP 07, France
Employees: 10000+
Founded: 1881

Attack summary

Severity: critical — The victim is a national government ministry; confirmed data publication by Lapsus$ implies exfiltration of sensitive public-sector data that likely includes PII of civil servants, confidential policy documents, and potentially regulated information, meeting the threshold for critical severity.

Lapsus$ claims to have published data obtained from the French Ministry of Agriculture; the post is marked 'data_published', indicating exfiltration and public release of files rather than encryption alone. No ransom amount or specific data volume was stated in the post.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Government administrative documents
Internal communications
Personnel records
Policy and regulatory files

Original description

AI-summarised, not from the leak post

The FR Ministry of Agriculture, or the French Ministry of Agriculture, is a governmental body in France overseeing agriculture, forestry, and food processing. It develops policies to support farming and rural development, ensures food quality and safety, and handles fisheries and animal welfare. The ministry also plays crucial roles in research, education, and regulation of agricultural and food markets in France.

Source

Indexed 3 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.