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Pinnacle Communications

Claimed by Royal · listed 4 years ago

43m
Age
since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

  1. ListedDec 22, 2022
  2. Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group
Royal
Status
Data leaked
Country
United States
Sector
Telecommunications
Listed on leak site
Dec 22, 2022

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Pinnacle Communications is a U.S.-based provider of guest-facing technology solutions for the hospitality industry, offering phone systems, internet, TV, surveillance, cabling, DirecTV, and its flagship Hotel360 end-to-end platform. The company operates offices in Fargo ND, Germantown MD, and Palm Harbor FL, and serves hotels of all sizes as well as senior living facilities. With over 30 years in business, it resulted from a merger involving Justin Hannesson and Pinnacle West LLC.

Industry
Hospitality Technology & Telecommunications Solutions
Address
1626 Tom Williams Drive S, Fargo, ND 58104; 19821 Executive Park Circle, Germantown, MD 20874; 180 Alt. 19, Suite A, Palm Harbor, FL 34683

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been confirmed published by the group, indicating successful exfiltration; the company handles hospitality and senior living client infrastructure, meaning exposure likely includes customer PII and sensitive operational data across multiple client properties.

The Royal ransomware group claims to have attacked Pinnacle Communications and has published data ('data_published' status), though the leak post does not specify the volume of exfiltrated data or whether encryption was also performed. No ransom amount or explicit data categories were stated in the post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post
  • Business communications data
  • Employee records
  • Customer/client information
  • Internal company documents

What the group claims

Pinnacle Communications merged with Justin Hannesson and Pinnacle West LLC to become the company that we are today. This dynamic strength exhibited within both companies merging into one has positioned Pinnacle as one of the most valued brands in the hospitality industry. Through all of 30-plus years, we continue to grow and our reputation for quality service and a robust product line keeps us in the forefront of the niche hospitality market. Pinnacle’s employees have always been the core and heartbeat of the company since the day we started. Along with an unmatched work-ethic, talent and ingenuity, Pinnacle’s all-star staff has survived the many economic and turbulent challenges of the past 30 years. Through it all our proven leadership team and staff have shown great determination and passion for our company, and we look forward to a bright future.

Sources

Source

Indexed 4 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 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

  • December 22, 2022Pinnacle Communications listed by Royalon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Royal

Royal has been linked to 211 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Royal dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Telecommunications sector, which has 87 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Pinnacle Communications is reported in United States, a country with 11,033 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Royal means Pinnacle Communications 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 Royal'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.