Disclosure context

About worldleaks

Based on the limited available data, worldleaks is a recently emerged ransomware group that was first observed in May 2025 and appears to be primarily financially motivated, having claimed 134 victims in a relatively short timeframe since its emergence. The group's origin and organizational structure remain unclear, with no publicly documented information from major cybersecurity firms or law enforcement agencies regarding their country of origin, potential affiliations, or operational model. Their targeting patterns indicate a focus on English-speaking countries, particularly the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, with additional activity observed in Germany and Japan, while their sector targeting shows a preference for healthcare, technology, manufacturing, and consumer services organizations. Due to the group's recent emergence and limited public documentation by established threat intelligence sources, specific details about their attack methodologies, encryption techniques, extortion tactics, and notable campaigns have not yet been comprehensively analyzed or reported by organizations such as CISA, FBI, or major cybersecurity research firms. The group appears to remain active as of the most recent observations, though comprehensive threat intelligence profiling awaits further analysis and documentation by established cybersecurity authorities. The group has been linked to 155 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on May 18, 2025; most recent post May 12, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

March 20, 2026City of Los Angeles (LA) listed by worldleakson the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Public Sector sector, which has 259 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, City of Los Angeles (LA) 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

← All victims

City of Los Angeles (LA)

Claimed by worldleaks · listed 2 months ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Mar 20, 2026
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: worldleaks
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Public Sector
Listed on leak site: Mar 20, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

The City of Los Angeles is the largest city in California and the second-largest in the United States, governed as a municipal corporation headquartered in Downtown Los Angeles. It provides a broad range of public services including housing, transportation, public safety, utilities, and urban planning to a population of approximately 4 million residents. LA is a major global center for entertainment, technology, trade, and culture.

Industry: Municipal Government
Address: 200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012, United States
Employees: 50000+
Founded: 1850

Attack summary

Severity: high — The victim is a major U.S. municipal government; a confirmed data_published status against such an entity implies potential exposure of PII, public-sector records, and sensitive administrative data at scale. However, the absence of any specific data inventory, proof files, or operational impact details prevents escalation to critical.

The group 'worldleaks' claims to have published data belonging to the City of Los Angeles, with the disclosure status marked as 'data_published'; however, the leak post contains no specific details about the nature of the attack, what data was exfiltrated, or whether encryption occurred.

high

Original description

AI-summarised, not from the leak post

The City of Los Angeles, often referred to as "LA," is the largest city in the state of California, USA. It is governed as a municipal corporation known for its extensive services including housing, transportation, and public safety. LA has diverse economies ranging from entertainment (Hollywood) to technology and is a major cultural, financial, and commercial center.

Sources

Victim sitelacity.gov
Leak posthttps://worldleaksartrjm3c6vasllvgacbi5u3mgzkluehrzhk2jz4taufuid.onion/companies/6948521802

Source

Indexed 2 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.