Disclosure context

About Metaencryptor

Metaencryptor is a relatively new ransomware group that emerged in August 2023, operating with primarily financial motivations and targeting organizations across multiple sectors and geographical regions. The group appears to be an independent operation rather than a Ransomware-as-a-Service model, though limited public documentation makes definitive attribution challenging regarding their specific country of origin or connections to established cybercriminal networks. Based on their targeting patterns, Metaencryptor demonstrates a preference for manufacturing organizations, business services, and transportation/logistics companies, with their operations concentrated primarily in Western nations including Germany, the United States, Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom. With 31 documented victims since their emergence, the group represents a moderate but persistent threat in the ransomware landscape. However, due to their recent emergence and relatively lower profile compared to major ransomware families, comprehensive technical analysis of their attack methodologies, encryption techniques, and specific initial access vectors has not been extensively documented by major cybersecurity firms or government agencies. The group's current operational status remains active as of available intelligence, though the limited public reporting suggests they operate with a smaller scale and lower visibility than prominent ransomware-as-a-service operations that typically attract more attention from law enforcement and security researchers. The group has been linked to 31 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on August 16, 2023; most recent post June 24, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

December 7, 2023Garda listed by Metaencryptoron the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Business Services sector, which has 2,640 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Garda is reported in Canada, a country with 810 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

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

← All victims

GardaWorld

listed as Garda · Claimed by Metaencryptor · listed 2 years ago

29m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Dec 7, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Metaencryptor
Status: Data leaked
Country: Canada
Sector: Business Services
Listed on leak site: Dec 7, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

GardaWorld is a major North American private security company headquartered in Canada, providing contract security officers, K9 security, crowd management, and related services across the United States and Canada. The company operates offices in 48 U.S. states and serves sectors including government, healthcare, financial, retail, data centers, and critical infrastructure. It is one of the largest security firms on the continent.

Industry: Physical Security Services
Employees: 10000+

Attack summary

Severity: high — GardaWorld is a large security services provider serving government, critical infrastructure, financial, and healthcare clients; confirmed data publication by the threat actor involving a company of this sensitivity and scale constitutes high severity, with potential exposure of client contracts, employee PII, and sensitive operational security data.

The Metaencryptor ransomware group claims an attack on GardaWorld and has published data (disclosed status: data_published), though the leak post itself is minimal and does not detail specific exfiltration volumes or encryption claims.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Corporate business data
Potentially employee records
Potentially client/contract information

What the group claims

Garda

Sources

Source

Indexed 2 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.