Disclosure context

About Karakurt

Karakurt is a ransomware group that emerged in December 2022, operating primarily as a data extortion threat actor with financial motivations rather than traditional file encryption. The group's origin and affiliations remain largely undocumented by major cybersecurity agencies, though their operational patterns suggest they function as an independent entity rather than a confirmed ransomware-as-a-service operation. Karakurt employs data theft and extortion tactics, focusing on exfiltrating sensitive information from victim networks before demanding payment under threat of public disclosure, representing a pure extortion model that bypasses traditional encryption-based ransomware approaches. The group has targeted 74 known victims across multiple sectors, with particular focus on healthcare, education, manufacturing, energy, and professional services organizations, primarily affecting entities in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, and India. Based on available reporting from established cybersecurity agencies and researchers, Karakurt appears to remain active as of recent assessments, though comprehensive intelligence on their specific attack vectors, tools, and major campaigns remains limited in publicly documented sources from CISA, FBI, and major security research organizations. The group has been linked to 74 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on December 11, 2022; most recent post September 22, 2023. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

April 29, 2023Our Sunday Visitor listed by Karakurton the group's public leak site

Data size: 130 GB

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Media & Entertainment sector. Geographically, Our Sunday Visitor is reported in United States, a country with 7,392 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

Our Sunday Visitor

Claimed by Karakurt · listed 3 years ago

130 GB

Data size

37m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Apr 29, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Karakurt
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Media & Entertainment
Listed on leak site: Apr 29, 2023
Data size: 130 GB

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) is a Catholic publisher and services organization headquartered in Huntington, Indiana, serving millions of Catholics across the United States and globally. The company provides parishes and dioceses with a broad suite of solutions spanning financial health (offertory programs, capital campaigns, online giving), communications, data management, faith formation curriculum, and publishing. OSV also operates OSV News and offers books, media, and educational materials for individuals, families, and schools.

Industry: Catholic Publishing & Parish Services
Address: 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750, United States
Employees: 201-500
Founded: 1912

Attack summary

Severity: high — 130 GB of confirmed exfiltrated data includes employee PII (HR records), financial records, and contracts at meaningful scale; data is stated to be imminently published. While not a government or healthcare entity, the volume and sensitivity of HR/financial data—combined with Karakurt's data-extortion-only model and imminent publication threat—warrants a high severity rating.

Karakurt claims to have exfiltrated 130 GB of data from Our Sunday Visitor, including full accounting documentation, HR records containing employee personal data, financial contracts and invoices, and marketing materials; publication of the data is described as 'coming soon,' indicating imminent public release.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Accounting documentation
HR records with employee personal data
Financial contracts
Invoices
Marketing information

What the group claims

Our Sunday Visitor is a Catholic publisher serving millions of Catholics globally through its publishing, offertory, and communication services. They've lost 130GB of their data that includes full accounting documentation, many HR docs with personal data of employees, financial contracts and invoices, their marketing information and many other document as well. Coming soon.

Sources

Victim siteosv.com

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.