Disclosure context

About shadowbyt3$

ShadowByt3$ is an emerging ransomware group that was first observed in February 2026, appearing to be financially motivated based on its ransomware operations. The group's country of origin and any potential affiliations with other cybercriminal organizations remain unknown due to limited intelligence available on this newly identified threat actor. Given the minimal public documentation available, the group's attack methodology, tools, and operational tactics have not been sufficiently analyzed or reported by major cybersecurity firms or government agencies. No notable campaigns, high-profile victims, or significant ransoms have been publicly documented by CISA, FBI, Mandiant, or other reputable security researchers, with only one known victim reported to date and no specific sector targeting patterns identified. The current operational status of ShadowByt3$ remains unclear due to the limited intelligence available on this recently emerged and relatively unknown ransomware operation. The group has been linked to 7 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on February 25, 2026; most recent post May 14, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

May 14, 2026Ellucian PowerCampus Warning (Contact Us) listed by shadowbyt3$on the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 694 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Ellucian PowerCampus Warning (Contact Us) is reported in US, a country with 2,713 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

Ellucian

listed as Ellucian PowerCampus Warning (Contact Us) · Claimed by shadowbyt3$ · listed 6 days ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
May 14, 2026
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: shadowbyt3$
Status: Data leaked
Country: US
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: May 14, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Ellucian is a US-based software company that provides SaaS and ERP solutions purpose-built for higher education institutions, including student information systems, HCM, finance, recruiting, and analytics platforms. Recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Higher Education SaaS Student Information Systems for two consecutive years, Ellucian serves colleges and universities globally. Its PowerCampus product is a student information system used by numerous higher education institutions.

Industry: Higher Education SaaS & ERP Software
Employees: 1001-5000

Attack summary

Severity: critical — The claimed breach affects multiple higher education institutions via a shared SaaS platform, with student PII and institutional records at scale potentially exposed across many schools; proof files have been published to Mega.nz and data is threatened for full public release, indicating confirmed exfiltration of regulated education data (FERPA-covered) across a supply-chain-style attack vector.

The threat actor 'shadowbyt3$' claims to have exfiltrated data from multiple schools using Ellucian's PowerCampus platform, providing a Mega.nz link with sample proof files including reports dated 2025 and 2026, and threatening to publicly release all data unless Ellucian contacts them by May 20th. The post also references a Telegra.ph page listing all affected schools and instructions for accessing data via Tor.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Student records from affected institutions
Institutional reports (2025 and 2026 samples)
Data from multiple schools using Ellucian PowerCampus
Tor-accessible full dataset

The group's post references roughly 2 proof files.

What the group claims

This is a warning for ellucian PowerCampus. Due to not people paying much for are breach we will give you 48 hours to contact us. If you don't it will get published instead of sold. To all researchers to verify the data is real you can go to the mega.nz leak below. Also we put 2 reports from 2025 and 2026 for a sample. Due to company not contacting us it would be great if you could let them know so there aware. You have till May 20th to contact us and reach an agreement or all data gets leaked and posted. mega.nz: https://mega.nz/folder/f8B2QKAI#WC6QVl2VmhgP_PWR6DsUUw also the link below is for all affected schools and how to access tor and download tor for companies. https://telegra.ph/All-The-affected-Schools-By-Ellucian-PowerCampus-and-how-to-download-and-use-tor-browser-05-14

Sources

Victim siteellucian.com

Source

Indexed 6 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.