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Cristal Controls

Claimed by Royal · listed 4 years ago

43m
Age
since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

  1. ListedDec 16, 2022
  2. Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group
Royal
Status
Data leaked
Country
United States
Sector
Technology
Listed on leak site
Dec 16, 2022

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Cristal Controls is a Québec City-based manufacturer of SCR and SSR power controllers, low voltage lighting control systems, energy management systems, temperature and humidity controls, and automation electronic products. Founded in 1991, the company serves manufacturers, specialized distributors, and integrators, offering both standard product lines and customized solutions. The team comprises approximately 30 members.

Industry
Energy Management & Lighting Control Systems Manufacturing
Address
Québec City, Québec, Canada
Employees
30
Founded
1991

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been confirmed as published by the Royal group, indicating successful exfiltration of business data from a manufacturing firm. While no regulated PII at scale or critical infrastructure impact is explicitly confirmed, the publication of data from an industrial controls manufacturer poses significant business and supply-chain risk.

The Royal ransomware group claims to have attacked Cristal Controls and has published data ('data_published' status), indicating confirmed exfiltration of company data. No specific ransom amount or data size has been stated.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post
  • Company internal files
  • Customer/business relationship records
  • Product design and engineering data
  • Employee records
  • Operational and manufacturing data

What the group claims

Cristal Controls manufactures energy management systems, low voltage lighting control systems, temperature controls, humidity controls, and automation electronic products for manufacturers, specialized distributors, and integrators. We design all our systems and provide the necessary product training.One of our main objectives is to ensure continued growth by delivering high-quality products within the specified deadline. We maintain close business relations with our customers by bringing them the appropriate solutions that truly fulfill their needs.Cristal Controls, manufacturer of SCR and SSR power controllers, and of lighting control systems and energy management systems, was founded in Québec City in 1991. Since its creation, the company has maintained a solid and steady growth. Starting with only two employees and limited production capabilities, Cristal Controls’ team is now made up of almost 30 members, all working together for the success of your projects.With the years, we have gained a solid and considerable expertise in many lines of products, such as SCR and Triac modulating energy controllers, linear step controllers, BACnet’s energy management systems, low voltage lighting control systems, and automation systems.Cristal Controls collaborates with many major companies by providing them with high quality products as well as by developping for them customized solutions that meet their specific needs.

Source

Indexed 4 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.

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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

  • December 16, 2022Cristal Controls listed by Royalon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Royal

Royal has been linked to 211 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Royal dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Technology sector, which has 3,549 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Cristal Controls is reported in United States, a country with 11,033 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Royal means Cristal Controls 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.
  • Report the incident to your national CERT, CISA (United States), as required for your jurisdiction.
  • Monitor for the data appearing on Royal'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.