Was GKS Hydraulik hit by ransomware?

GKS Hydraulik was listed by the Royal ransomware operation (Germany), and stolen data was published on the group's leak site. Darkfield tracks this disclosure with the original leak post, screenshot and group context.

Who is the Royal ransomware group?

Royal is a ransomware operator tracked by Darkfield. See the full operator dossier for its known victims, sectors targeted, IOCs and leak-site infrastructure.

What data was leaked in the GKS Hydraulik breach?

Royal published data attributed to GKS Hydraulik. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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GKS Hydraulik

Claimed by Royal · listed 3 years ago

$1M

Ransom

demanded

39m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedApr 22, 2023
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Royal
Status: Data leaked
Country: Germany
Sector: Manufacturing
Listed on leak site: Apr 22, 2023
Ransom demanded: $1M

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

GKS Hydraulik GmbH & Co. KG is a small German company based in Kressbronn am Bodensee specialising in the planning, manufacturing, and assembly of custom hydraulic aggregates, as well as hydraulic service (repair, maintenance, and overhaul) and wholesale distribution of hydraulic components. Founded in 1976, the company serves industrial clients in the Lake Constance region and acts as a distribution partner for brands including Bosch Rexroth, Danfoss, Enerpac, and Hydac.

Industry: Hydraulic Systems Manufacturing & Wholesale
Address: Im Heidach 3, 88079 Kressbronn am Bodensee, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Employees: 11-20
Founded: 1976

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been confirmed published by the threat actor, indicating successful exfiltration; the $1M ransom demand and data publication for a small SME suggests significant business data exposure, though no large-scale regulated PII (medical, government) evidence is present.

The Royal ransomware group claims to have attacked GKS Hydraulik and has published data (disclosed status: data_published), demanding a $1 million ransom. No specific data volume is stated, but the publication of data implies exfiltration of company files.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Company business data
Potentially financial records
Potentially employee records
Potentially customer/partner records

What the group claims

GKS Hydraulik is a company that operates in the Wholesale industry. It employs 11-20 people and has $1M-$5M of revenue. The company is headquartered in Kressbronn Am Bodensee, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.

Sources

Victim sitegks-hydraulik.com
Leak posthttp://royal4ezp7xrbakkus3oofjw6gszrohpodmdnfbe5e4w3og5sm7vb3qd.onion/4E2ChQjtEOsDNy5kFGxsQU7sgfNWqfcj

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.

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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

April 22, 2023GKS Hydraulik listed by Royalon the group's public leak site

Ransom demanded: $1M

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 Manufacturing sector, which has 3,681 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, GKS Hydraulik is reported in Germany, a country with 926 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Royal means GKS Hydraulik 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, CERT-Bund (Germany), 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.