Was Auckland University of Technology hit by ransomware?

Auckland University of Technology was listed by the Monti ransomware operation (New Zealand), 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 Monti ransomware group?

Monti 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 Auckland University of Technology breach?

Monti published data attributed to Auckland University of Technology. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Auckland University of Technology

Claimed by Monti · listed 3 years ago

33m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedSep 21, 2023
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Monti
Status: Data leaked
Country: New Zealand
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Sep 21, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is a public university based in Auckland, New Zealand, founded in 1895. It offers certificates, undergraduate degrees, and postgraduate diplomas across a wide range of disciplines, attracting students from over 140 countries. AUT operates multiple campuses in Auckland and is recognised as a leading modern university in New Zealand.

Industry: Higher Education
Address: 55 Wellesley Street East, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Employees: 1001-5000
Founded: 1895

Attack summary

Severity: critical — AUT is a large public university holding regulated PII at scale for thousands of students, staff, and alumni across 140+ countries, including potentially sensitive academic, health, and financial records. The disclosed status is data_published, confirming exfiltration and public release of data.

The Monti ransomware group claims to have attacked Auckland University of Technology and has published data as part of a disclosed leak, though no specific ransom amount or data size was stated in the post.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Student records
Staff personal information
Academic records
Research data
Financial records
Alumni data
IT and administrative documents

What the group claims

Founded in 1895, Auckland University of Technology is an educational facility that offers certificates, undergraduates, and postgraduate diplomas in a variety of fields.

Sources

Source

Indexed 3 years 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 Monti

Monti is a ransomware group that emerged in December 2022, operating with primarily financial motivations through targeted encryption attacks against organizations across multiple sectors. The group's origin and specific affiliations remain largely undocumented in public threat intelligence reports, though their operational patterns suggest they function as an independent ransomware operation rather than a established Ransomware-as-a-Service model. Monti's attack methodology and specific technical details regarding initial access vectors, encryption methods, and data exfiltration practices have not been extensively documented in publicly available threat intelligence from major security firms or government agencies. The group has reportedly compromised approximately 110 victims since their emergence, with their targeting primarily focused on organizations in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, and Italy, showing a particular preference for business services, healthcare, manufacturing, and technology sectors. Limited public documentation exists regarding specific notable campaigns or high-profile attacks attributed to Monti, reflecting the group's relatively recent emergence and lower profile compared to more established ransomware operations. As of current reporting, Monti appears to remain an active threat, though comprehensive intelligence on their current operational status is limited in publicly available sources from major cybersecurity organizations and law enforcement agencies. The group has been linked to 110 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on December 7, 2022; most recent post May 8, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 21, 2023Auckland University of Technology listed by Montion the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Monti

Monti has been linked to 110 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Monti dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 1,082 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Auckland University of Technology is reported in New Zealand, a country with 11 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Monti means Auckland University of Technology 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, CERT NZ (New Zealand), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on Monti'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.