Was Pine Belt Cars hit by ransomware?

Pine Belt Cars was listed by the Meow 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 Meow ransomware group?

Meow 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 Pine Belt Cars breach?

Meow published data attributed to Pine Belt Cars (~8 GB). Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Pine Belt Cars

Claimed by Meow · listed 2 years ago

8 GB

Data size

20m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedNov 14, 2024
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Meow
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Business Services
Listed on leak site: Nov 14, 2024
Data size: 8 GB

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Pine Belt Cars is a family-owned automotive dealership group founded in 1937, based in Lakewood, New Jersey. They sell new and pre-owned vehicles from brands including Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Mazda, and Subaru, and provide financing, maintenance, and parts services to a diverse clientele.

Industry: Automotive Dealership & Services
Address: Lakewood, New Jersey, United States
Founded: 1937

Attack summary

Severity: critical — Confirmed exfiltration of regulated sensitive data at scale, including PII (employee identification documents, medical records with health conditions and family history), customer financial and purchase data, and employee payroll records. Medical data exfiltration elevates severity to critical.

The Meow group claims to have exfiltrated approximately 8 GB of confidential data from Pine Belt Cars' systems. The stolen data includes employee personal identification documents, customer information, financial records, medical data, and operational documentation.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Employee personal identification documents
Driver licenses and passports
Customer contact details and purchase records
Contracts and commercial agreements
Vehicle specifications and maintenance records
Financial documents (invoices, payroll, tax records)
Legal documents and insurance policies
Medical records (vaccination details, health insurance, chronic conditions, allergies, family medical history)

What the group claims

Dear customers!We are excited to offer exclusive access to over 8 GB of confidential data from Pine Belt Cars, a family owned and operated automotive dealership group based in Lakewood, New Jersey, with a rich history dating back to 1937. Offering a wide selection of new and pre owned vehicles from brands like Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Mazda, and Subaru, Pine Belt Cars is a trusted name in the automotive industry.In addition to vehicle sales, Pine Belt Cars provides a complete suite of automotive services, including financing options, maintenance, and parts, all delivered with a dedication to customer satisfaction. Known for their personalized service and flexible financing solutions, the dealership group caters to a diverse clientele while maintaining strong ties to the community through regular support for local organizations and events.This comprehensive data pack includes:Employee data personal identification, drivers licenses, passports. Client information contact details, purchase records. Contracts and commercial agreements. Technical documentation vehicle specifications, maintenance records. Financial documents invoices, payroll, credit and tax records. Legal documents company status, certificates, insurance policies. Medical records vaccination details, health insurance policies, chronic condition histories, allergy information, family medical history. And much more.This data pack provides in depth insights into Pine Belt Cars operations, making it of interest to professionals in automotive retail, finance, business analysis, and other related sectors.To access this exclusive 8 GB data pack, click the Buy button and provide your contact details for registration. Our team will guide you through a secure and confidential transaction.Dont miss the opportunity to explore key information from Pine Belt Cars with this exclusive data pack!

Sources

Leak posthttp://meow6xanhzfci2gbkn3lmbqq7xjjufskkdfocqdngt3ltvzgqpsg5mid.onion/product/127

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.

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Disclosure context

About Meow

Meow is a relatively new ransomware group that emerged in November 2023, primarily motivated by financial gain through extortion activities targeting organizations across multiple sectors. The group has compromised at least 145 known victims in a short operational timeframe, demonstrating rapid scaling of their criminal enterprise. Based on their targeting patterns, Meow appears to focus heavily on English-speaking countries, with the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada representing their primary victim base, though they have also expanded operations to include targets in Italy and Colombia. The group shows a preference for attacking business services organizations, manufacturing companies, healthcare institutions, and agriculture and food production entities, suggesting they may employ broad-spectrum targeting rather than highly specialized sector focus. Their emergence in late 2023 and the significant victim count achieved in a relatively short period indicates either a sophisticated operation with experienced operators or potential links to existing ransomware ecosystems, though specific details about their attack methodology, initial access vectors, encryption techniques, or data exfiltration practices have not been extensively documented by major threat intelligence sources. Given the recent timeline of their emergence and limited public reporting from established security researchers, detailed technical analysis of their tools, tactics, and procedures remains sparse. The group appears to remain active as of current reporting, though comprehensive law enforcement actions or major disruption efforts have not been publicly documented. The group has been linked to 145 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 24, 2023; most recent post November 19, 2024. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

November 14, 2024Pine Belt Cars listed by Meowon the group's public leak site

Data size: 8 GB

Other recent disclosures by Meow

Meow has been linked to 145 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Meow dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Business Services sector, which has 3,796 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Pine Belt Cars is reported in United States, a country with 11,033 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Meow means Pine Belt Cars 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 Meow'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.