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, 2026DreamUp listed by lapsus$on the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 694 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, DreamUp 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

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DreamUp

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: United States
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Mar 1, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

DreamUp is an American company that provides space-based educational opportunities to students of all ages, with a focus on STEM fields. The company offers programs leveraging the microgravity environment of space, facilitated through partnerships with SpaceX, the International Space Station, and other space organizations. It enables students and researchers to conduct experiments in space.

Industry: Space-Based STEM Education

Attack summary

Severity: low — The leak post contains no proof files, no stated data volume, no description of exfiltrated data types, and the group's post content appears AI-generated with no concrete evidence of operational impact or sensitive data exposure.

Lapsus$ claims to have disclosed data related to DreamUp, with the post marked as data_published; however, no specific details about encryption, exfiltration volume, or the nature of the stolen data are provided in the leak post.

low

Original description

AI-summarised, not from the leak post

DreamUp is an American company that provides space-based educational opportunities to students of all ages. They offer various programs that utilize the unique environment of space to spark interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. DreamUp provides tools to conduct research in microgravity through partnerships with SpaceX, the International Space Station and other space organizations.

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.