Disclosure context

About Royal

Royal is a financially motivated ransomware group that emerged in November 2022, quickly establishing itself as a significant threat with over 200 documented victims across multiple sectors. The group is believed to operate independently rather than as a ransomware-as-a-service model, though their exact country of origin remains unclear based on publicly available intelligence. Royal primarily gains initial access through phishing campaigns and exploitation of remote desktop protocols, subsequently deploying custom ransomware that encrypts victim files while exfiltrating sensitive data for double extortion tactics. The group has demonstrated a preference for targeting critical infrastructure and public services, with notable attacks against educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and government entities primarily in the United States, though they have also significantly impacted organizations across Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and France. Their encryption methodology involves custom-built malware that systematically encrypts files while maintaining persistence on compromised networks. As of recent reporting from federal agencies including CISA and FBI advisories, Royal remains an active threat with ongoing campaigns targeting organizations across their preferred sectors, particularly focusing on entities with limited cybersecurity resources that may be more likely to pay ransom demands. The group has been linked to 211 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 4, 2022; most recent post July 19, 2023. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

May 22, 2023Atlas Commodities listed by Royalon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Financial Services sector, which has 516 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Atlas Commodities 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

← All victims

Atlas Commodities

Claimed by Royal · listed 3 years ago

36m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
May 22, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Royal
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Financial Services
Listed on leak site: May 22, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Atlas Commodities, LLC is a full-service commodity brokerage firm specializing in energy markets including natural gas, crude oil/products, and power. The firm facilitates trading for institutional buyers, sellers, producers, processors, and end-users. It is a Minority Business Enterprise, Small Business Enterprise, and Veteran-Owned company, operating as an appointed representative of Kroll Securities Limited and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Industry: Commodity Brokerage & Energy Trading

Attack summary

Severity: high — Confirmed exfiltration and publication of HR, accounting, and banking data constitutes significant sensitive business and financial data exposure, including potentially regulated financial records and employee PII.

The Royal ransomware group claims to have exfiltrated data from Atlas Commodities, with the leak post indicating the disclosed data includes HR, accounting, and banking records. The status is listed as data_published, suggesting the data has been released or made available.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

HR records
Accounting records
Banking records

What the group claims

HR \ Accounting \ Banking

Sources

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.