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Pakistan Bureau of Statistics

listed as pbos.gov.pk · Claimed by Babuk2 · listed 1 year ago

17m
Age
since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

  1. ListedJan 27, 2025
  2. Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group
Babuk2
Status
Data leaked
Country
Pakistan
Sector
Public Sector
Listed on leak site
Jan 27, 2025

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) is the official federal statistics agency of Pakistan, responsible for conducting national censuses, household surveys, and economic data collection. Based in Islamabad, it operates under the Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives.

Industry
Government Statistics & Data Collection
Address
Islamabad, Pakistan
Employees
500-1000
Founded
1973

Attack summary

Severity: critical — Compromise of a national statistics bureau represents a critical threat to national infrastructure and governance. PBS holds sensitive census data, demographic information, and economic statistics affecting national policy. Even without confirmed exfiltration details, the attack on a core government data agency handling population-scale datasets warrants critical classification.

The Babuk2 ransomware group claims to have compromised pbos.gov.pk and published data. No specific details on encryption, exfiltration scope, or data type are provided in the leak post.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post
  • Government statistics databases
  • Census data
  • Survey records
  • Potentially personally identifiable information

What the group claims

pbos.gov.pk

Sources

Source

Indexed 1 year 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 babuk2

Babuk2 appears to be a recently emerged ransomware operation first observed in January 2025, representing either a new variant or successor to the original Babuk ransomware group, with apparent financial motivations based on their targeting patterns across multiple sectors and geographic regions. Given the limited timeframe since their emergence and the naming convention, this group likely operates independently or represents a rebrand/evolution of previous Babuk operations, though definitive attribution remains unclear due to the recency of their activities. Based on their targeting patterns across diverse sectors including public sector entities, technology companies, healthcare organizations, and manufacturing firms, the group appears to employ broad-spectrum attack methodologies typical of modern ransomware operations, though specific technical details regarding their initial access vectors, encryption methods, and extortion tactics have not yet been extensively documented by major security researchers. With 180 documented victims across multiple countries including significant activity in the United States, Brazil, India, Indonesia, and China within just the first month of 2025, Babuk2 has demonstrated a notably aggressive operational tempo, though specific high-profile incidents or ransom demands have not yet been publicly detailed by major cybersecurity firms or law enforcement agencies. The group appears to remain actively operational as of early 2025, though their recent emergence means long-term operational patterns and potential law enforcement responses are still developing. The group has been linked to 180 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on January 27, 2025; most recent post April 23, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

  • January 27, 2025pbos.gov.pk listed by babuk2on the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by babuk2

babuk2 has been linked to 180 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full babuk2 dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Public Sector sector, which has 466 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, pbos.gov.pk is reported in Pakistan, a country with 9 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by babuk2 means pbos.gov.pk 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.
  • Monitor for the data appearing on babuk2'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.