Was AECOM hit by ransomware?

AECOM was listed by the METAENCRYPTER ransomware operation (United States) as a victim being extorted; data had not been published at the time of listing. Darkfield tracks this disclosure with the original leak post, screenshot and group context.

Who is the METAENCRYPTER ransomware group?

METAENCRYPTER is a ransomware operator tracked by Darkfield. See the full operator dossier for its known victims, sectors targeted, IOCs and leak-site infrastructure.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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AECOM

Claimed by METAENCRYPTER · listed 3 hours ago

1 TB

Data size

Today

Age

since listed · listed for ransom

Status timeline

ListedSep 18, 2026

Current state: Listed for ransom

At a glance

Group: METAENCRYPTER
Status: Listed for ransom
Country: United States
Sector: Infrastructure / Engineering
Listed on leak site: Sep 18, 2026
Data size: 1 TB

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

AECOM is a leading U.S.-based global infrastructure consulting and engineering company providing design, engineering, construction management, and advisory services for major infrastructure projects across transportation, water, energy, buildings, environmental services, and government markets. The company operates worldwide serving both public- and private-sector clients.

Industry: Infrastructure Consulting & Engineering

Attack summary

Severity: high — Confirmed exfiltration of 2 TB of internal data from a major global infrastructure consulting firm; while specific data categories are not detailed in the post, the scale and nature of the victim (critical infrastructure advisor) elevates risk. No proof samples are advertised, and no specific regulated data is named, preventing 'critical' classification.

METAENCRYPTER claims to have exfiltrated 1 TB of internal data from AECOM's systems. The group announced an additional 1 TB extracted within 24 hours, stating the company remains vulnerable. The leak post describes the group's disclosure protocol but does not specify the nature of exfiltrated data categories or provide proof samples specific to AECOM.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Internal company data (type unspecified)
Additional data tranche (1 TB)

What the group claims

A leading U.S.-based global infrastructure consulting and engineering company providing design, engineering, construction management, and advisory services for major infrastructure projects across transportation, water, energy, buildings, environmental services, and government markets.

The leak post

captured from the group's site

This platform publishes data belonging to organizations that have elected to forgo negotiation entirely.Upon a company's initial listing, the complete manifest of exfiltrated files is disclosed alongside a curated selection of representative samples. Should the organization fail to establish contact prior to the stated deadline, a portion of the compromised data is released into the public domain.Should all subsequent attempts at resolution prove fruitless, the full volume of acquired data is made permanently and unconditionally available to the general public — accessible without restriction to journalists, researchers, competitors, and any other interested party. Simultaneously, formal notifications are dispatched to the relevant data protection and regulatory authorities: the and in the United States; the , , , and the across Europe; the (Singapore), (South Korea), and (Japan) throughout Asia — all of whom are mandated to investigate and impose penalties upon the affected organization.In the event that a mutual agreement is reached, every file in our possession is permanently and irrevocably destroyed, and all references to that organization are expunged from this platform in th…

Screenshot of the leak post

Sources

Leak posthttp://metacrptmytukkj7ajwjovdpjqzd7esg5v3sg344uzhigagpezcqlpyd.onion

Source

Indexed 3 hours 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 METAENCRYPTER

METAENCRYPTER is a ransomware group first observed in September 2026 with an apparent primary motivation of financial gain, having claimed at least 13 known victims across multiple high-value sectors since its emergence. The group's country of origin and potential affiliations with established threat actors or ransomware-as-a-service ecosystems remain unconfirmed in publicly available reporting from CISA, FBI, Mandiant, or other reputable security research organizations at this time. Based on victim telemetry, METAENCRYPTER demonstrates a clear focus on industrial and technology-oriented sectors, including manufacturing, home appliances and HVAC, high-tech engineering and industrial automation, pharmaceuticals, automotive manufacturing, and medical technology and healthcare, suggesting deliberate targeting of organizations with high operational disruption thresholds and potential willingness to pay ransoms to restore critical processes. The group's primary attack vectors, tooling, encryption mechanisms, and use of double or triple extortion tactics have not been extensively documented in open-source intelligence reporting as of this writing, likely reflecting the group's recent emergence and relatively limited victim count. Geographic targeting patterns indicate a concentration on victims in the United States, Japan, Germany, Singapore, and Canada, consistent with a financially motivated actor prioritizing economically developed nations with technology-heavy industrial bases. Given the group's recent first observation date and limited public attribution data, METAENCRYPTER should be considered an emerging threat requiring continued monitoring, and organizations in the targeted sectors are advised to follow CISA and FBI guidance on ransomware defense pending further technical reporting. The group has been linked to 18 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 16, 2026; most recent post September 18, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 18, 2026AECOM listed by METAENCRYPTER on the group's public leak site

Data size: 1 TB

Other recent disclosures by METAENCRYPTER

METAENCRYPTER has been linked to 18 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full METAENCRYPTER dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Infrastructure / Engineering sector. Geographically, AECOM is reported in United States, a country with 3,165 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by METAENCRYPTER means AECOM appeared on a ransomware extortion site and is being pressured to pay before any publication. 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 METAENCRYPTER'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.