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 424 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 9, 2025; most recent post May 18, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: the gentlemen.

Timeline of this disclosure

May 6, 2026C2O Architects listed by thegentlemenon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Business Services sector, which has 2,640 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, C2O Architects is reported in BE, a country with 28 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

C2O Architects

Claimed by thegentlemen · listed 15 days ago

14d

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
May 6, 2026
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: thegentlemen
Status: Data leaked
Country: BE
Sector: Business Services
Listed on leak site: May 6, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

C2O Architects (C2O-Architects bv) is a Belgian architectural and urban planning firm headquartered in Asse, Flemish Brabant, Belgium, founded on June 29, 2000. The studio is led by Marnik Dehaen and co-owned by Erna Polspoel, offering services spanning small private renovations and residential expansions through to large-scale public projects. The multidisciplinary team covers architecture, urban design, and spatial planning.

Industry: Architecture & Urban Planning
Address: Nieuwstraat 26, 1730 Asse, Flemish Brabant, Belgium
Founded: 2000

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been confirmed as published by the threat actor. An architectural firm holds client PII, project contracts, financial records, and potentially sensitive planning/property data. Publication of exfiltrated data constitutes confirmed exfiltration of significant business and personal data.

The group 'thegentlemen' claims to have attacked C2O Architects and has published data (disclosed status: data_published), though no specific data size or ransom demand was stated in the post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Architectural project files
Client records
Business correspondence
Financial documents
Personal data of staff and clients

What the group claims

c2o-architects.be zoominfo.com/c/c2o-architects/451291685 C2O Architects (C2O-Architects bv) is a Belgian architectural and urban planning firm founded on June 29, 2000, headquartered at Nieuwstraat 26, Asse, Flemish Brabant, Belgium. The studio is led by Marnik Dehaen, who also serves as Chairman of the Flemish Council of the Order of Architects, and co-owned by Erna Polspoel. The firm works across a wide range — from small private renovations and residential expansions to large-scale public projects — with a multidisciplinary team that adds value through expertise in architecture, urban design, and spatial planning. A notable project includes the award-winning Asse Landform complex (2014), a regional fire station and youth center designed in collaboration with ORG Permanent Modernity

Sources

Victim sitec2o-architects.be

Source

Indexed 15 days 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.