Was northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED hit by ransomware?

northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED was listed by the Cactus ransomware operation (Canada), 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 Cactus ransomware group?

Cactus 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 northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED breach?

Cactus published data attributed to northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

← All victims

Northern Response International

Q: Who is the Cactus ransomware group?

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

Q: What data was leaked in the northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED breach?

Cactus published data attributed to northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

listed as northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED · Claimed by Cactus · listed 1 year ago

17m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedFeb 6, 2025
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Cactus
Status: Data leaked
Country: Canada
Sector: Business Services
Listed on leak site: Feb 6, 2025

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Northern Response International is a distributor of infomercials, DRTV spots, and consumer products through retail and online channels. Operating for over 25 years, the company serves as Canada's largest infomercial distributor with distribution networks across the USA and to over 90 countries globally. They facilitate product placement and licensing for brands and retailers.

Industry: Direct Response, Home Shopping & Retail Product Distribution
Address: 50 Staples Avenue, Richmond Hill, Toronto, Ontario, Canada L4B 0A7

Attack summary

Severity: high — Confirmed data exfiltration of 366 GB from a major distribution company; disclosure status indicates data has been published. The scale and business sensitivity (client/partner relationships, licensing agreements) warrants high severity, though lack of specific detail on regulated data (PII at scale, financial records) prevents critical rating.

Cactus ransomware group claims to have compromised Northern Response International and exfiltrated data. The leak post indicates less than 1% of the 366 GB dataset has been disclosed on their public platform.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Business records
Client information
Distribution agreements
Product licensing data
Retail partner details

Sources

Victim sitenorthernresponse.com

Source

Indexed 1 year 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 Cactus

**Overview:** Cactus is a ransomware group that emerged in July 2023, primarily motivated by financial gain through double extortion tactics targeting organizations across multiple sectors. The group has demonstrated rapid expansion, compromising 552 known victims within its first year of operation. **Origin & Affiliation:** Limited public information exists regarding Cactus's country of origin or specific affiliations with other ransomware groups, though their targeting patterns and operational methods suggest they operate as an independent entity rather than a Ransomware-as-a-Service model. **Attack Methodology:** Cactus ransomware operators employ double extortion tactics, stealing sensitive data before encrypting victim systems and threatening to leak the information if ransom demands are not met. The group appears to focus on gaining initial access through common vectors such as compromised credentials and vulnerable internet-facing applications, followed by lateral movement and data exfiltration prior to deployment of their encryption payload. **Notable Campaigns:** While specific high-profile incidents have not been extensively documented by major security agencies, the group's victim count of 552 organizations within approximately one year indicates sustained and aggressive targeting campaigns across North America and Europe. Their focus on manufacturing and business services sectors suggests deliberate targeting of organizations likely to pay ransoms due to operational dependencies. **Current Status:** Cactus remains an active ransomware threat as of late 2024, continuing to target organizations primarily in the United States, Canada, and European countries with no reported law enforcement disruptions or confirmed dissolution of their operations. The group has been linked to 552 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on July 20, 2023; most recent post March 21, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

February 6, 2025northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED listed by Cactuson the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Cactus

Cactus has been linked to 552 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Cactus 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, northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED is reported in Canada, a country with 1,055 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Cactus means northernresponse.com\$17.4M\Canada\366GB\<1% DISCLOSED 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, CCCS (Canada), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on Cactus'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.