Was Rutgers University hit by ransomware?

Rutgers University was listed by the Flocker ransomware operation (United States), 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 Flocker ransomware group?

Flocker 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 Rutgers University breach?

Flocker published data attributed to Rutgers University. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Rutgers University

Claimed by Flocker · listed 2 years ago

26m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedMay 3, 2024
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Flocker
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Government
Listed on leak site: May 3, 2024

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a major public research university with three campuses in New Brunswick, Newark, and Camden, plus a statewide academic health division. It serves over 71,000 students and operates 300+ research centers and institutes.

Industry: Higher Education & Research
Address: New Brunswick, Newark, and Camden, New Jersey, United States
Founded: 1766

Attack summary

Severity: medium — Claim of infiltration with vague threat of disclosure; no proof files published, no specific data inventory disclosed, no operational disruption confirmed. Classification reflects the announced intent and university scale, but lacks concrete evidence of exfiltration or impact.

Flocker claims to have infiltrated Rutgers.edu servers and promises to 'unveil hidden truths' within 7 days. No specific data types or exfiltration method confirmed in the post.

medium

What the group claims

We have infiltrated the Rutgers.edu servers, a well-known educational institution. In just 7 days, we will unveil their hidden truths

Sources

Victim siterutgers.edu/
Leak posthttp://flock4cvoeqm4c62gyohvmncx6ck2e7ugvyqgyxqtrumklhd5ptwzpqd.onion/?p=139

Source

Indexed 2 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 Flocker

Flocker is a relatively new ransomware group that emerged in May 2024, operating with apparent financial motivations and having compromised at least 59 known victims within a short operational timeframe. The group's origin and affiliations remain largely undocumented by major threat intelligence organizations, with no confirmed country of origin or clear operational model regarding RaaS capabilities established in public reporting. Based on available targeting data, Flocker appears to employ opportunistic attack methodologies that have successfully compromised organizations across diverse sectors including technology, public sector, financial services, and transportation/logistics, though specific technical details regarding their initial access vectors, encryption methods, or data exfiltration practices have not been publicly documented by authoritative sources. The group has demonstrated a notable geographic reach with victims identified across the United States, UAE, Taiwan, Canada, and Zambia, suggesting either broad targeting capabilities or affiliate operations, though no specific high-profile campaigns or major incidents have been publicly attributed to them by federal agencies or established security researchers. As of current reporting, Flocker appears to remain active given their recent emergence timeline, though comprehensive threat intelligence regarding their operations remains limited in open-source reporting from authoritative cybersecurity organizations. The group has been linked to 59 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on May 3, 2024; most recent post July 31, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

May 3, 2024Rutgers University listed by Flockeron the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Flocker

Flocker has been linked to 59 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Flocker dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Government sector, which has 685 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Rutgers University is reported in United States, a country with 11,033 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Flocker means Rutgers University 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 Flocker'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.