Was University of San Francisco hit by ransomware?

University of San Francisco was listed by the thegentlemen 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 thegentlemen ransomware group?

thegentlemen 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 University of San Francisco breach?

thegentlemen published data attributed to University of San Francisco. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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University of San Francisco

Claimed by Thegentlemen · listed 5 days ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedSep 7, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Thegentlemen
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Sep 7, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

University of San Francisco is a private Jesuit research university founded in 1855, located in San Francisco with approximately 10,200 students. It operates multiple campuses (San Francisco, Downtown, Pleasanton, and Tokyo) and is classified as an R2 "high research activity" institution by Carnegie Classification, known for its mission-driven approach to social justice, diverse student body (55% students of color, 34% first-generation), and Division I athletics program.

Industry: Higher Education - Private Research University
Address: 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA
Founded: 1855

Attack summary

Severity: low — The leak post is an announcement with detailed public information about the university (sourced from public site and ZoomInfo), but contains no enumeration of exfiltrated data, no proof files/screenshots, and no explicit claim of what was accessed or compromised. Without stated data inventory or proof, this appears to be a listing announcement only.

The ransomware group 'thegentlemen' claims to have compromised University of San Francisco's systems (usfca.edu). The leak post does not explicitly state what data was exfiltrated or encrypted, nor does it specify the nature of the attack (encryption, exfiltration, or both).

low

What the group claims

usfca.edu zoominfo.com/c/university-of-san-francisco/346496443 is San Francisco's oldest university — a private Jesuit institution founded in 1855, with ~10,200 students, a $428M endowment, and a 55-acre hilltop campus near Golden Gate Park (plus downtown, Pleasanton and Tokyo sites). A 13:1 student-faculty ratio and #1-ranked online professional studies graduate program anchor its academics; 34% first-gen, 55% students of color, 92% on financial aid — mission-driven access defines it. Athletics: Division I Dons (WCC) with 3 national titles — home of Bill Russell's legendary 1955–56 back-to-back NCAA basketball championships. New president Salvador Aceves (2025) — the first Latino in the role — and an R2 "high research activity" Carnegie classification. Tuition ~$62K with average grants of $38K+; alumni median salary $115K. Bottom line: a mission-driven urban Jesuit university blending social justice, elite basketball history and top professional programs — "Change the World From Here.

Sources

Victim siteusfca.edu

Source

Indexed 5 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.

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Disclosure context

About thegentlemen

thegentlemen is a ransomware group that emerged in September 2025, operating with apparent financial motivations based on their broad targeting of commercial sectors. The group has documented 267 victims across multiple countries, with primary focus on the United States, Thailand, France, Brazil, and India. Their targeting strategy demonstrates a preference for high-value sectors including manufacturing, technology, healthcare, and financial services organizations. Given the group's recent emergence and limited public documentation from established threat intelligence sources such as CISA, FBI, or major security research firms, specific details regarding their country of origin, operational structure, attack methodologies, encryption techniques, and whether they employ ransomware-as-a-service models remain unclear. The relatively high victim count of 267 in a short operational timeframe since September 2025 suggests either an aggressive campaign pace or potential inflation of victim numbers through affiliate operations, though without corroborating intelligence reports, the group's exact operational capabilities and notable campaigns cannot be definitively established. Current intelligence indicates the group remains active as of late 2025, though comprehensive threat profiling requires additional validated reporting from authoritative cybersecurity sources. The group has been linked to 838 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 9, 2025; most recent post September 9, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: the gentlemen.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 7, 2026University of San Francisco listed by thegentlemen on the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by thegentlemen

thegentlemen has been linked to 838 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full thegentlemen dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 1,087 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, University of San Francisco is reported in United States, a country with 3,165 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by thegentlemen means University of San Francisco 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 thegentlemen'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.