Was Payap University hit by ransomware?

Payap University was listed by the thegentlemen ransomware operation (Thailand), 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 thegentlemen ransomware group?

thegentlemen 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 Payap University breach?

thegentlemen published data attributed to Payap University. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Payap University

Claimed by Thegentlemen · listed 3 months ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedMar 16, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Thegentlemen
Status: Data leaked
Country: Thailand
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Mar 16, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Payap University (มหาวิทยาลัยพายัพ) is a private university located in Chiang Mai, Thailand, operating across two campuses. It offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and short-term/certificate programmes including international degrees through its International College and Interdisciplinary Studies College. The university provides a range of student and staff services including IT systems, language centres, and student welfare facilities.

Industry: Higher Education
Address: 272 หมู่ 2 ตำบลสันพระเนตร อำเภอสันทราย จังหวัดเชียงใหม่ 50210, Thailand (Mae Khao Campus); 131 ถนนแก้วนวรัฐ ตำบลวัดเกต อำเภอเมือง จังหวัดเชียงใหม่ 50000, Thailand (Kaew Nawarat Campus)

Attack summary

Severity: high — Disclosure status is 'data_published', indicating confirmed exfiltration. A university holds significant volumes of PII covering students and staff (academic records, personal details, financial/payroll data), making this a high-severity incident even though the specific data inventory cannot be verified from the obscured leak post.

The group 'thegentlemen' claims to have attacked Payap University with data published status indicated, suggesting data exfiltration has occurred. The leak post content is not readable due to a browser verification wall, so specific claims about encrypted or exfiltrated data cannot be confirmed from the post itself.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Student records
Staff/personnel data
Academic registrar data
Financial/payroll records
HR system data
Email communications
IT system credentials

What the group claims

payap.ac.th zoominfo.com/c/payap-university/29803045 Payap University is an international educational institution offering a variety of programs, including interdisciplinary studies and multiple international programs. It provides services such as student exchange programs, language enhancement, and various proficiency testing centers. The university aims to cater to a diverse international clientele seeking higher education and innovation opportunities. Additionally, it hosts events like the International Conference on Lifespan Innovation

The leak post

captured from the group's site

Gentlecloud Protection 🛡️ Gentlecloud Verifying your browser... Initializing security checks... I'm not a bot

Sources

Victim sitepayap.ac.th
Leak posthttp://tezwsse5czllksjb7cwp65rvnk4oobmzti2znn42i43bjdfd2prqqkad.onion

Source

Indexed 3 months 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 thegentlemen

thegentlemen is a ransomware group that emerged in September 2025, operating with apparent financial motivations based on their broad targeting of commercial sectors. The group has documented 267 victims across multiple countries, with primary focus on the United States, Thailand, France, Brazil, and India. Their targeting strategy demonstrates a preference for high-value sectors including manufacturing, technology, healthcare, and financial services organizations. Given the group's recent emergence and limited public documentation from established threat intelligence sources such as CISA, FBI, or major security research firms, specific details regarding their country of origin, operational structure, attack methodologies, encryption techniques, and whether they employ ransomware-as-a-service models remain unclear. The relatively high victim count of 267 in a short operational timeframe since September 2025 suggests either an aggressive campaign pace or potential inflation of victim numbers through affiliate operations, though without corroborating intelligence reports, the group's exact operational capabilities and notable campaigns cannot be definitively established. Current intelligence indicates the group remains active as of late 2025, though comprehensive threat profiling requires additional validated reporting from authoritative cybersecurity sources. The group has been linked to 483 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 9, 2025; most recent post June 11, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: the gentlemen.

Timeline of this disclosure

March 16, 2026Payap University listed by thegentlemenon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by thegentlemen

thegentlemen has been linked to 483 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full thegentlemen dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 694 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Payap University is reported in Thailand, a country with 45 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by thegentlemen means Payap University 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.
Monitor for the data appearing on thegentlemen'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.