Ransomware victim disclosure

University of Valencia

Claimed by nova · listed 6 hours ago

Today

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
May 23, 2026
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: nova
Status: Data leaked
Country: ES
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: May 23, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

The University of Valencia is one of Spain's oldest and leading academic institutions, founded in 1499 and located in Valencia, Spain. It currently enrolls approximately 55,000 students and offers courses primarily in Spanish, with increasing offerings in Valencian and English.

Industry: Higher Education
Address: Valencia, Spain
Founded: 1499

Attack summary

Severity: high — Confirmed exfiltration of personal data including photographs of minors and students, which constitutes sensitive PII at scale affecting a large institution with 55,000 students. Data involving children elevates severity despite lack of published proof samples.

Nova claims to have exfiltrated sensitive personal data including photographs of students and children, as well as staff information. The group characterizes the data as embarrassing and sensitive, and is soliciting contact for ransom negotiation.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

personal photographs of students
personal photographs of children
staff personal data

What the group claims

University of Valencia is a university located in the Spanish city of Valencia. It is one of the oldest surviving universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Valencian Community, and is regarded as one of Spain's leading academic institutions. The University was founded in 1499, and currently has around 55,000 students. Most of the courses are given through the medium of Spanish, but the university has promised to increase the amount of courses available in Valencian. Moreover, in some degrees part of the teaching is in English - we don't know why you save personal kids photos and students on the server, the data is very sensitive and Embarrassing for the students and the staffs and kids, we will discuss the status with our Management Team about the kids photos, Contact us for deal - Nova Provide tree and samples from stolen data to the company when its get in touch with support department.

Sources

Leak posthttp://novadmrkp4vbk2padk5t6pbxolndceuc7hrcq4mjaoyed6nxsqiuzyyd.onion/university-of-valencia

Source

Indexed 6 hours 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 nova

Based on the limited available data, Nova is a recently emerged ransomware operation first observed in April 2025 with an apparent financial motivation, having targeted approximately 95 victims in its brief operational period. The group's origin and potential affiliations remain undocumented by major security firms, though their targeting pattern suggests a broad opportunistic approach rather than geopolitically motivated attacks. Nova's attack methodology and specific technical capabilities have not been publicly detailed by established threat intelligence sources, though their victim distribution across the United States, France, Brazil, Singapore, and the Netherlands indicates either automated widespread targeting or access to diverse initial compromise vectors. The group has demonstrated a preference for targeting healthcare, technology, manufacturing, and education sectors, suggesting they may focus on organizations with critical operational dependencies that increase pressure for ransom payment. Given the group's recent emergence and limited public documentation by major security researchers, Nova's current operational status, organizational structure, and long-term threat trajectory remain largely uncharacterized in established threat intelligence reporting. The group has been linked to 123 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on April 28, 2025; most recent post May 23, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

May 23, 2026University of Valencia listed by novaon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by nova

nova has been linked to 123 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

AMACCAONot Found · May 22, 2026