Disclosure context

About play

**Overview:** Play (also known as PlayCrypt) is a financially motivated ransomware group that emerged in late 2022, conducting targeted attacks against organizations across multiple sectors with a focus on financial extortion. **Origin & Affiliation:** The group's country of origin remains unclear based on public reporting, though they appear to operate independently rather than as a traditional ransomware-as-a-service model. **Attack Methodology:** Play ransomware operators typically gain initial access through compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials and exploit valid accounts, then move laterally through networks using tools like Cobalt Strike before deploying their custom ransomware payload. The group employs double extortion tactics, stealing sensitive data before encryption and threatening to publish it on their leak site if ransom demands are not met. **Notable Campaigns:** According to CISA advisories, Play has targeted over 300 entities globally since its emergence, with significant impacts on critical infrastructure sectors including healthcare, education, and government services, though specific ransom amounts and individual victim details vary in public reporting. **Current Status:** Play remains an active threat as of 2024, continuing to target organizations primarily in North America and Europe according to ongoing security researcher observations and law enforcement warnings. The group has been linked to 1,276 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 26, 2022; most recent post May 20, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: PlayCrypt.

Timeline of this disclosure

May 12, 2026Northern Mechanical Contractors listed by playon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Construction sector, which has 415 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Northern Mechanical Contractors is reported in CA, a country with 278 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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Northern Mechanical Contractors

Claimed by play · listed 8 days ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
May 12, 2026
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: play
Status: Data leaked
Country: CA
Sector: Construction
Listed on leak site: May 12, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Northern Mechanical Contractors (northernmc.com) is a mechanical contracting company operating in Canada, based on the country classification. The firm is engaged in construction and mechanical contracting services, which typically encompasses HVAC, plumbing, piping, and related building systems installation. No further detail was available from the public site at the time of extraction.

Industry: Mechanical Contracting & Construction

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been confirmed as published by the Play group (data_published status), indicating successful exfiltration of business data. Play is a known ransomware operator that routinely exfiltrates sensitive internal documents, employee PII, and client records before or alongside encryption. Published data elevates this beyond medium severity.

The Play ransomware group claims to have attacked Northern Mechanical Contractors and has published data (disclosed status: data_published), indicating exfiltration of company data; no ransom amount or specific data volume was stated in the post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Company business data
Potentially employee records
Potentially client/project records

What the group claims

United States

The leak post

captured from the group's site

PLAY NEWS PLAY PLAY NEWS CONTACT FAQ Play ransomware HAS NEVER PROVIDED AND DOES NOT PROVIDE THE RaaS , read the FAQ page. WE NEVER WRITES FIRST, IF SOMEONE WRITES TO YOU, THEY ARE SCAMMERS. If we have not responded to you by email within 12 hours, please leave your contact information on the website in the contact tab. DURAND-WAYLAND &nbsp;United States &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;www.durand-wayland.com &#128065;&#65039; views: 217 added: 2026-05-12 publication date: 2026-05-16 3 DAYS BEFORE PUBLICATION Ashcroft Homes &nbsp;Canada &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;www.ashcrofthomes.ca &#128065;&#65039; views: 261 added: 2026-05-12 publication date: 2026-05-16 3 DAYS BEFORE PUBLICATION IWC Food Service &nbsp;United States &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;www.goiwc.com &#128065;&#65039; views: 256 added: 2026-05-12 publication date: 2026-05-16 3 DAYS BEFORE PUBLICATION ACC Construction &nbsp;United States &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;www.acc-construction.com &#128065;&#65039; views: 229 added: 2026-05-12 publication date: 2026-05-16 3 DAYS BEFORE PUBLICATION Northern Mechanical Contractors &nbsp;United States &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;www.northernmc.com &#128065;&#65039; views: 256 …

Sources

Victim sitewww.northernmc.com
Leak posthttp://j75o7xvvsm4lpsjhkjvb4wl2q6ajegvabe6oswthuaubbykk4xkzgpid.onion/topic.php?id=rHr0BK7KvvfJe

Source

Indexed 8 days 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.