Was Balkan Polymers hit by ransomware?

Balkan Polymers was listed by the thegentlemen ransomware operation (Bulgaria), and stolen data was published on the group's leak site. Darkfield tracks this disclosure with the original leak post, screenshot and group context.

Who is the thegentlemen ransomware group?

thegentlemen is a ransomware operator tracked by Darkfield. See the full operator dossier for its known victims, sectors targeted, IOCs and leak-site infrastructure.

What data was leaked in the Balkan Polymers breach?

thegentlemen published data attributed to Balkan Polymers. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Balkan Polymers

Claimed by Thegentlemen · listed 20 hours ago

Today

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedSep 15, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Thegentlemen
Status: Data leaked
Country: Bulgaria
Sector: Manufacturing
Listed on leak site: Sep 15, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Balkan Polymers is a leading polymer distributor and recycler in Southeast Europe, founded in 2011 in Zrenjanin, Serbia by Aleksandar Nikolić. The company operates 4 plants (3 in Serbia, 1 in Slovakia) processing ~26,000 tons of polymers annually, with vertically integrated recycling operations producing recycled granules (rPP, rPE, rPS). It serves 794+ clients across 20+ markets and maintains offices in Belgrade, Sofia, Bucharest, Istanbul, and Frankfurt.

Industry: Polymer Distribution & Recycling
Address: Belgrade, Serbia (headquarters); additional offices in Sofia, Bucharest, Istanbul, Frankfurt
Founded: 2011

Attack summary

Severity: low — Post is an announcement/listing with no explicit proof of data exfiltration, encryption, or operational disruption. No sensitive personal data, financial records, or classified information is confirmed to have been published. The disclosed information appears largely derived from public website and business directories.

The leak post discloses details about Balkan Polymers' operations and market presence but contains no explicit claims of encryption, data exfiltration, or ransom demand by thegentlemen. The group has published the company information as a listing, suggesting data collection or reconnaissance.

low

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Company operational structure
Client database (794+ customers referenced)
Geographic market distribution
Supply chain partnerships

What the group claims

balkanpolymers.com zoominfo.com/c/balkan-polymers/397725276 Balkan Polymers Serbian polymer recycling group founded in 2011 in Zrenjanin by Aleksandar Nikolić — a German-trained chemical engineer who returned home after careers at BASF and Nike — now running 4 plants (3 Serbia + 1 Slovakia) processing 26,000 tons of polymers per year (~$20–25M revenue est.). Full vertical integration: collection → optical sorting → shredding → hot washing → extrusion → compounding, producing rPP, rPE (LDPE/HDPE) and rPS granules for packaging, automotive and construction manufacturers across 10+ CE markets (Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, Czechia...). Certified EuCertPlast — the EU traceability standard that unlocks "recycled content" claims; environmental math: ~52,000 tons CO₂-equivalent saved and ~1.3 billion PET bottles rescued annually. Backed by state-level recognition (President Vučić cites it as a model diaspora business) and riding EU recycled-content directives (25% rPET by 2025, 30% by 2030

Sources

Victim sitebalkanpolymers.com

Source

Indexed 20 hours 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 thegentlemen

thegentlemen is a ransomware group that emerged in September 2025, operating with apparent financial motivations based on their broad targeting of commercial sectors. The group has documented 267 victims across multiple countries, with primary focus on the United States, Thailand, France, Brazil, and India. Their targeting strategy demonstrates a preference for high-value sectors including manufacturing, technology, healthcare, and financial services organizations. Given the group's recent emergence and limited public documentation from established threat intelligence sources such as CISA, FBI, or major security research firms, specific details regarding their country of origin, operational structure, attack methodologies, encryption techniques, and whether they employ ransomware-as-a-service models remain unclear. The relatively high victim count of 267 in a short operational timeframe since September 2025 suggests either an aggressive campaign pace or potential inflation of victim numbers through affiliate operations, though without corroborating intelligence reports, the group's exact operational capabilities and notable campaigns cannot be definitively established. Current intelligence indicates the group remains active as of late 2025, though comprehensive threat profiling requires additional validated reporting from authoritative cybersecurity sources. The group has been linked to 868 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 9, 2025; most recent post September 15, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: the gentlemen.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 15, 2026Balkan Polymers listed by thegentlemen on the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by thegentlemen

thegentlemen has been linked to 868 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full thegentlemen dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Manufacturing sector, which has 3,696 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Balkan Polymers is reported in Bulgaria, a country with 2 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by thegentlemen means Balkan Polymers 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 thegentlemen'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.