Disclosure context

About Royal

Royal is a financially motivated ransomware group that emerged in November 2022, quickly establishing itself as a significant threat with over 200 documented victims across multiple sectors. The group is believed to operate independently rather than as a ransomware-as-a-service model, though their exact country of origin remains unclear based on publicly available intelligence. Royal primarily gains initial access through phishing campaigns and exploitation of remote desktop protocols, subsequently deploying custom ransomware that encrypts victim files while exfiltrating sensitive data for double extortion tactics. The group has demonstrated a preference for targeting critical infrastructure and public services, with notable attacks against educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and government entities primarily in the United States, though they have also significantly impacted organizations across Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and France. Their encryption methodology involves custom-built malware that systematically encrypts files while maintaining persistence on compromised networks. As of recent reporting from federal agencies including CISA and FBI advisories, Royal remains an active threat with ongoing campaigns targeting organizations across their preferred sectors, particularly focusing on entities with limited cybersecurity resources that may be more likely to pay ransom demands. The group has been linked to 211 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 4, 2022; most recent post July 19, 2023. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

May 3, 2023Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College listed by Royalon the group's public leak site

Data size: 14.5 GB

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 694 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College 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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Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College

Claimed by Royal · listed 3 years ago

14.5 GB

Data size

37m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
May 3, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Royal
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: May 3, 2023
Data size: 14.5 GB

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College (SWVCTC) is a public community college headquartered in Mount Gay, West Virginia. It offers associate degrees, workforce certificates, and online learning options across multiple campuses in southern West Virginia. The college serves a primarily regional student population with programs in allied health, nursing, mining/energy technologies, and general transfer pathways.

Industry: Higher Education (Community & Technical College)
Address: Mount Gay, West Virginia, United States

Attack summary

Severity: critical — Confirmed exfiltration of regulated sensitive data at scale, including hundreds of SSNs (PII subject to identity theft risk) and medical information for students and staff, constituting FERPA- and HIPAA-adjacent regulated data categories affecting a public educational institution.

Royal ransomware group claims to have exfiltrated 14.5 GB of data from the college, including personally identifiable information such as hundreds of Social Security Numbers, medical information for students and personnel, confidential documents, and NDAs, with the group stating the data will be published on their blog.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Student personal information
Personnel personal information
Social Security Numbers (hundreds)
Medical information
Confidential documents
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)

What the group claims

Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College is a public community college with its main campus in Mount Gay, West Virginia. There are many sweets inside their 14,5GB data we have: personal information of students and personnel (hundreds of SSNs, medical information and etc.), confidential documents, NDAs and many other. We will soon share it with you here in our blog.

Sources

Victim sitesouthernwv.edu
Leak posthttp://royal4ezp7xrbakkus3oofjw6gszrohpodmdnfbe5e4w3og5sm7vb3qd.onion/nAbClRuF7N8pMyCp0LXafkAwFYeYwyJi

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.