Disclosure context

About Vicesociety

Vicesociety is a ransomware group that emerged in May 2021, primarily motivated by financial gain through targeting critical infrastructure and public service organizations. The group's origin and specific affiliations remain largely undetermined by public threat intelligence reporting, though their operational patterns suggest they function as an independent ransomware operation rather than a established RaaS model. Vicesociety primarily gains initial access through exploitation of public-facing applications and credential-based attacks, with documented cases showing they particularly focus on compromising remote access services and vulnerable web applications before deploying their ransomware payload across victim networks. The group has demonstrated a clear preference for targeting educational institutions, government agencies, and healthcare organizations, with their 188 documented victims concentrated heavily in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Spain, indicating a focus on English-speaking and Western European entities. While specific high-profile campaigns have not been extensively detailed in major public threat intelligence reports from CISA or FBI advisories, the group's consistent targeting of critical sectors like education and healthcare has drawn attention from security researchers monitoring threats to essential services. Vicesociety remains active as of recent threat intelligence assessments, continuing their operations against similar target sectors with no documented law enforcement disruption or significant operational changes. The group has been linked to 188 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on May 31, 2021; most recent post June 20, 2023. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

March 23, 2023Autoridad de Acueductos Y Alcantarillados listed by Vicesocietyon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Energy & Utilities sector, which has 6 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Autoridad de Acueductos Y Alcantarillados is reported in Puerto Rico.

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

← All victims

Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority (PRASA)

listed as Autoridad de Acueductos Y Alcantarillados · Claimed by Vicesociety · listed 3 years ago

38m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Mar 23, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Vicesociety
Status: Data leaked
Country: Puerto Rico
Sector: Energy & Utilities
Listed on leak site: Mar 23, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

The Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority (PRASA / AAA) is a government-owned public corporation responsible for the management, treatment, and distribution of drinking water and wastewater services across Puerto Rico, a U.S. insular territory. It is the sole public water and sewer utility serving the entire island and operates under federal EPA oversight, including a formal Consent Agreement. As critical public infrastructure, it serves approximately 3.4 million residents.

Industry: Water & Wastewater Utilities (Government-Owned)
Address: Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, Puerto Rico (headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico)
Employees: 5000+
Founded: 1945

Attack summary

Severity: critical — PRASA is critical public water and wastewater infrastructure serving the entire U.S. territory of Puerto Rico (~3.4M people). Data published by the group likely includes PII of customers and employees at scale, financial records, and sensitive operational/infrastructure data for a government-owned utility subject to federal EPA oversight. Attack on water infrastructure is classified as critical infrastructure compromise.

Vice Society claims to have exfiltrated data from PRASA and has published the data ('data_published' status), targeting a government-owned critical water and wastewater infrastructure operator serving the entire population of Puerto Rico. No ransom amount was stated and no explicit description of encryption was provided in the post.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Government utility operational records
Financial and investor information
Procurement and purchasing system data
Infrastructure project documents
Employee records (likely)
Customer/ratepayer personal information (likely)
EPA compliance documentation
Internal communications

What the group claims

The Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority is a water company and the government-owned corporation responsible for water quality, management, and supply in Puerto Rico, a US insular area.

Sources

Victim siteacueductospr.com
Leak posthttp://xu66gzit6zp22qvixpenlxu2ok7vzrpqvgkuupkiukpz47va47ewbwad.onion/JhykowedsgX/aS2erWQ16ncOt7/

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.