Was D-MAX Engineering, Inc hit by ransomware?

D-MAX Engineering, Inc was listed by the Spacebears ransomware operation (United States), 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 Spacebears ransomware group?

Spacebears 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 D-MAX Engineering, Inc breach?

Spacebears published data attributed to D-MAX Engineering, Inc. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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D-MAX Engineering, Inc

Claimed by Spacebears · listed 6 hours ago

Today

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedSep 5, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Spacebears
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Manufacturing
Listed on leak site: Sep 5, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

D-MAX Engineering, Inc. is a San Diego-based environmental consulting firm founded in 1996 that specializes in storm water quality services and NPDES permit compliance for governmental agencies and municipalities across Southern California. The company serves 18+ municipalities in San Diego, Orange, Imperial, and Riverside Counties and is a state-certified small business enterprise.

Industry: Environmental Consulting & Storm Water Management
Address: San Diego, California, US
Founded: 1996

Attack summary

Severity: high — Confirmed exfiltration of PII (employees and clients) combined with financial and operational documents from a service provider to government agencies, creating exposure for both the company and its municipal clients.

The spacebears group claims to have exfiltrated personal information of employees and clients, financial documents, and communications/drawings from D-MAX Engineering. No ransom demand or operational disruption is stated in the post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Employee personal information
Client personal information
Financial documents
Communications
Drawings

What the group claims

D‑MAX Engineering, Inc. is a San Diego-based environmental consulting firm specializing in storm water services, particularly for governmental agencies. Our multidisciplinary team includes environmental scientists, engineers, chemists, and biologists. Our team is experienced with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements in Southern California.Since 1996, when the company was founded, we have completed numerous storm water projects for 18 municipalities in San Diego, Orange, Imperial, and Riverside Counties. We have developed a reputation for practical solutions, cost-effectiveness, responsiveness, and flexibility. D-MAX is recognized across the region for our expertise in jurisdictional storm water program development and reporting, water quality monitoring, Industrial General Permit compliance assistance, development and construction services, and inspections of businesses, municipal facilities, construction sites, and treatment control BMPs.Our experience has provided us with a comprehensive understanding of complex, countywide water quality issues and the ability to effectively address them. D-MAX adapts to our clients’ needs and provides a level of quality service that sets us apart. Our diverse team of professionals, central location, and familiarity with the region allows us to provide clients with a wide variety of services at affordable rates. We are a state-certified small business enterprise (SBE).-Personal information of employees and clients -Financial documents-Сommunications drawings https://www.dmaxinc.com/

The leak post

captured from the group's site

D‑MAX Engineering, Inc. is a San Diego-based environmental consulting firm specializing in storm water services, particularly for governmental agencies. Our multidisciplinary team includes environmental scientists, engineers, chemists, and biologists. Our team is experienced with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements in Southern California.Since 1996, when the company was founded, we have completed numerous storm water projects for 18 municipalities in San Diego, Orange, Imperial, and Riverside Counties. We have developed a reputation for practical solutions, cost-effectiveness, responsiveness, and flexibility. D-MAX is recognized across the region for our expertise in jurisdictional storm water program development and reporting, water quality monitoring, Industrial General Permit compliance assistance, development and construction services, and inspections of businesses, municipal facilities, construction sites, and treatment control BMPs.Our experience has provided us with a comprehensive understanding of complex, countywide water quality issues and the ability to effectively address them. D-MAX adapts to our clients’ needs and provides a…

Screenshot of the leak post

Leak screenshot for D-MAX Engineering, Inc

Sources

Victim sitewww.dmaxinc.com
Leak posthttp://5butbkrljkaorg5maepuca25oma7eiwo6a2rlhvkblb4v6mf3ki2ovid.onion/companies/76/d-max-engineering-inc

Source

Indexed 6 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 Spacebears

Spacebears is a recently emerged ransomware group first observed in April 2024, operating with apparent financial motivations and demonstrating a broad targeting approach across multiple sectors and geographic regions. The group's origin and potential affiliations remain unclear due to limited public documentation from established threat intelligence sources, though their targeting pattern suggests a professional operation focused on maximizing financial returns rather than geopolitical objectives. With 117 known victims since their emergence, Spacebears has shown particular focus on organizations in the United States, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Canada, with their attacks primarily affecting technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and business services sectors, indicating they likely employ opportunistic targeting rather than sector-specific specialization. Their attack methodology, initial access vectors, and specific technical capabilities have not been extensively documented in public reporting from major cybersecurity firms or law enforcement agencies, limiting detailed analysis of their operational procedures and tools. Due to the group's recent emergence and limited public intelligence reporting, notable high-profile campaigns and specific victim details remain largely undocumented in established threat intelligence channels. The group's current operational status appears active given their recent emergence timeline, though comprehensive analysis is constrained by the lack of detailed public reporting from authoritative cybersecurity sources. The group has been linked to 219 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on April 29, 2024; most recent post September 5, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: space bears.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 5, 2026D-MAX Engineering, Inc listed by Spacebearson the group's public leak site

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, D-MAX Engineering, Inc is reported in United States, a country with 3,165 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Spacebears means D-MAX Engineering, Inc 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 Spacebears'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.