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

July 28, 2023McAlester Regional Health Center listed by Karakurton the group's public leak site

Data size: 126 GB

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Healthcare sector, which has 1,779 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, McAlester Regional Health Center 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

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McAlester Regional Health Center

Claimed by Karakurt · listed 3 years ago

126 GB

Data size

34m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Jul 28, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Karakurt
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Healthcare
Listed on leak site: Jul 28, 2023
Data size: 126 GB

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

McAlester Regional Health Center is a regional hospital founded in 1978, located in McAlester, Oklahoma, serving the citizens of Southeast Oklahoma. It provides a continuum of care across a variety of healthcare services. The facility functions as a primary acute-care institution for the surrounding rural and semi-rural communities.

Industry: Regional Hospital & Healthcare Services
Address: 1 East Clark Bass Boulevard, McAlester, Oklahoma 74501, United States
Employees: 501-1000
Founded: 1978

Attack summary

Severity: critical — Confirmed exfiltration of highly regulated and sensitive data at scale, including patient medical records, DNA test results (a particularly sensitive biometric category), financial data, and HR records from a healthcare provider — squarely within HIPAA-regulated PII and genetic information subject to additional federal protections.

Karakurt claims to have exfiltrated 126 GB of data from McAlester Regional Health Center, including medical records, personal documents, financial and accounting data, HR documentation, and approximately 40 GB of patient DNA test results, with further publication indicated as pending.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Medical records
Personal documents
Financial and accounting data
HR documentation
Patient DNA test results (~40 GB)

What the group claims

Founded in 1978, McAlester Regional Health Center is devoted to a continuum of care offering a variety of health care services to the citizens of Southeast Oklahoma. Another one medical center doesn't care about their patients' data. 126gb of this organization data includes medical information, personal documents, financial and accounting data and lots of HR documentation. 40gb of DNA tests of patients is a bonus! Stay tuned.

Sources

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.