Was northernresponse.com hit by ransomware?

northernresponse.com was listed by the Cactus ransomware operation (Canada), 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 Cactus ransomware group?

Cactus 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 northernresponse.com breach?

Cactus published data attributed to northernresponse.com. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

← All victims

northernresponse.com

Claimed by Cactus · listed 1 year ago

$17.4M

Ransom

demanded

17m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedFeb 6, 2025
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Cactus
Status: Data leaked
Country: Canada
Sector: Consumer Services
Listed on leak site: Feb 6, 2025
Ransom demanded: $17.4M
Estimated revenue: $17.4M

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Northern Response International is a Canadian direct response and retail product distribution company based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, founded in 1984. They specialize in licensing and distributing infomercials, DRTV spots, and consumer products through omni-channel platforms (retail, TV, online, home shopping) across North America and 90+ countries.

Industry: Direct Response & Retail Product Distribution
Address: 50 Staples Ave, Richmond Hill, Ontario, L4B 0A7, Canada
Founded: 1984

Attack summary

Severity: critical — Confirmed exfiltration of regulated PII at scale (customer databases, employee/executive personal data, passport and driver's license scans), combined with financial and legal documents. Data published on dark web with proof files and accessible download links.

Cactus claims to have exfiltrated personal identifiable information, customer database backups, employee and executive personal folders, corporate OneDrive contents, financial data, legal documents, contracts, NDAs, and corporate correspondence from Northern Response.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Personal identifiable information (PII)
Customer database backups
Employee personal folders
Executive personal folders
Corporate OneDrive contents
Financial data
Legal documents
Contracts and NDAs
Corporate correspondence
Driver's licenses
Passports

The group's post references roughly 5 proof files.

What the group claims

Retail. “Located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Northern Response has been a pioneer in the Canadian market since 1984, building brands and scaling distribution via omni-channel marketing platforms including Live Shopping, TV, Print, Mass + Travel Retail and Online (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Amazon etc.). ” Website: <a href="https://northernresponse.com/">https://northernresponse.com/</a> Revenue : $17.4M Address: 50 Staples Ave, Richmond Hill, Ontario, L4B 0A7, Canada Phone Number: (905) 737-6698 Download link #1: <a href="https://6wuivqgrv2g7brcwhjw5co3vligiqowpumzkcyebku7i2busrvlxnzid.onion/NRESPONSE/PROOF/">https://6wuivqgrv2g7brcwhjw5co3vligiqowpumzkcyebku7i2busrvlxnzid.onion/NRESPONSE/PROOF/</a> Mirror: <a href="https://cactus5dqnqkppa5ayckiyk6dttpqwczdqphv5mxh4dkk5ct544q5aad.onion/NRESPONSE/PROOF/">https://cactus5dqnqkppa5ayckiyk6dttpqwczdqphv5mxh4dkk5ct544q5aad.onion/NRESPONSE/PROOF/</a> DATA DESCRIPTIONS: Personal identifiable information, database backups (including customers information), employees and executives personal folders, corporate OneDrive, financial data, legal docs, contracts\NDAs, corporate correspondence, etc.<img src="/uploads/RS_PASSPORT_5bdc6aba55.png" alt="RS PASSPORT.png"><img src="/uploads/LR_3_dd95e7a48e.png" alt="LR3.png"><img src="/uploads/Northern_Response_International_Ltd_20240331_95831d7424.png" alt="Northern Response (International) Ltd (20240331).png"><img src="/uploads/Personal_and_Confidential_NW_02_28_2023_A_1f8259f3d3.png" alt="Personal& Confidential - NW02.28.2023A.png"><img src="/uploads/KWONG_MING_KO_Driver_Licence_0999d6b004.png" alt="KWONG MING KO_Driver_Licence.png">

Sources

Victim sitenorthernresponse.com
Leak posthttps://cactusbloguuodvqjmnzlwetjlpj6aggc6iocwhuupb47laukux7ckid.onion/posts/NRESPONSE

Source

Indexed 1 year 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 Cactus

**Overview:** Cactus is a ransomware group that emerged in July 2023, primarily motivated by financial gain through double extortion tactics targeting organizations across multiple sectors. The group has demonstrated rapid expansion, compromising 552 known victims within its first year of operation. **Origin & Affiliation:** Limited public information exists regarding Cactus's country of origin or specific affiliations with other ransomware groups, though their targeting patterns and operational methods suggest they operate as an independent entity rather than a Ransomware-as-a-Service model. **Attack Methodology:** Cactus ransomware operators employ double extortion tactics, stealing sensitive data before encrypting victim systems and threatening to leak the information if ransom demands are not met. The group appears to focus on gaining initial access through common vectors such as compromised credentials and vulnerable internet-facing applications, followed by lateral movement and data exfiltration prior to deployment of their encryption payload. **Notable Campaigns:** While specific high-profile incidents have not been extensively documented by major security agencies, the group's victim count of 552 organizations within approximately one year indicates sustained and aggressive targeting campaigns across North America and Europe. Their focus on manufacturing and business services sectors suggests deliberate targeting of organizations likely to pay ransoms due to operational dependencies. **Current Status:** Cactus remains an active ransomware threat as of late 2024, continuing to target organizations primarily in the United States, Canada, and European countries with no reported law enforcement disruptions or confirmed dissolution of their operations. The group has been linked to 552 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on July 20, 2023; most recent post March 21, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

February 6, 2025northernresponse.com listed by Cactuson the group's public leak site

Ransom demanded: $17.4M

Other recent disclosures by Cactus

Cactus has been linked to 552 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Cactus dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Consumer Services sector, which has 829 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, northernresponse.com is reported in Canada, a country with 1,055 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Cactus means northernresponse.com 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, CCCS (Canada), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on Cactus'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.