Disclosure context

About Arvinclub

Arvinclub is a relatively obscure ransomware operation that emerged in September 2021, primarily motivated by financial gain through extortion activities targeting organizations across multiple sectors. The group's origin and affiliations remain largely undocumented in public threat intelligence reporting, with limited information available from major security vendors or law enforcement agencies regarding their operational structure or whether they operate as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model. Based on available attack data, Arvinclub has demonstrated a diverse geographical targeting approach, with documented victims spanning Colombia, Iran, the United Kingdom, India, and Russia, suggesting either opportunistic targeting or the use of automated attack vectors rather than region-specific campaigns. The group has shown a preference for targeting manufacturing organizations, food and agriculture companies, financial institutions, and educational entities, accumulating approximately 35 known victims since their emergence. Their specific attack methodologies, including initial access vectors, encryption techniques, and data exfiltration practices, have not been extensively documented in public threat intelligence reports from major security firms. No significant high-profile campaigns, major law enforcement disruptions, or notable ransomware demands have been publicly attributed to this group by CISA, FBI, or established security research organizations. The current operational status of Arvinclub remains unclear due to limited public reporting and threat intelligence coverage of this particular ransomware variant. The group has been linked to 35 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 9, 2021; most recent post October 15, 2023. The operation is currently inactive.

Also tracked as: Arvin Club.

Timeline of this disclosure

October 15, 2023Islamic Azad University Electronic Campus listed by Arvinclubon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 694 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Islamic Azad University Electronic Campus is reported in Iran.

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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Islamic Azad University Electronic Campus

Claimed by Arvinclub · listed 3 years ago

31m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Oct 15, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Arvinclub
Status: Data leaked
Country: Iran
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Oct 15, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Islamic Azad University Electronic Campus (ec.iau.ir) is the virtual/e-learning branch of Islamic Azad University, one of Iran's largest private university networks. It delivers fully online degree programmes to students across Iran. As an electronic campus it serves a large enrolled student and faculty population through its digital infrastructure.

Industry: Higher Education (Distance/E-Learning)

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data is marked as published (exfiltrated and released), and a university electronic campus would hold large volumes of PII including student records, credentials, and academic data for a substantial population, constituting significant sensitive data exposure even without confirmed medical or financial records.

The group Arvinclub claims to have attacked Islamic Azad University Electronic Campus, with the disclosure status recorded as data_published, indicating exfiltrated data has been released; no specific data volume or ransom demand was stated in the available post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Student personal records
Faculty/staff data
Academic records
User credentials/account data
Institutional administrative data

Sources

Victim siteec.iau.ir

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.