Was ESB Puerto Rico Corp hit by ransomware?

ESB Puerto Rico Corp was listed by the thegentlemen ransomware operation (Puerto Rico), 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 thegentlemen ransomware group?

thegentlemen 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 ESB Puerto Rico Corp breach?

thegentlemen published data attributed to ESB Puerto Rico Corp. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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ESB Puerto Rico Corp

Claimed by Thegentlemen · listed 21 hours ago

Today

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedAug 30, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Thegentlemen
Status: Data leaked
Country: Puerto Rico
Sector: Energy & Utilities
Listed on leak site: Aug 30, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

ESB Puerto Rico Corp is a distributor of automotive, industrial, and material-handling products operating in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands since 1965. Based in Carolina, PR, the company supplies batteries, tires, lubricants, diagnostic equipment, forklifts, and warehouse equipment to automotive, commercial, and industrial customers, with approximately 25 staff and ~$2M annual revenue.

Industry: Automotive & Industrial Products Distribution
Address: Carolina, PR
Employees: 25
Founded: 1965

Attack summary

Severity: low — Post is an announcement/listing with no proof files, no confirmed data exfiltration, no operational impact stated, and no sensitive data categories identified. Victim is a small distributor with no regulated data custodial role evident.

The leak post announces the company as a victim but provides no details of the attack method (encryption, exfiltration, or both) or the nature of data compromised. The post contains only company background information without specific claims of data theft or operational disruption.

low

What the group claims

esbpr.com ESB Puerto Rico Corp is a distributor of automotive and industrial products that has served Puerto Rico since 1965 ("Energizando a Puerto Rico desde 1965"); it is headquartered in Carolina, PR, is a Hispanic-/minority-owned small business and a federal contractor (CAGE 3DPU1). Its portfolio spans automotive, traction and stationary/backup batteries, tires, lubricants and DEF, AUTEL diagnostics, tools, plus Hyundai and EP forklifts, warehouse equipment, rental, maintenance, OEM parts and e-commerce — a "one-stop source" for material handling, automotive and industrial operations in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, representing ~9 brands (including Eternity Technologies). The president is Omar Aponte; the company stays lean (under ~25 staff, ~$2M revenue) and handles ~150 sea import shipments a year, mostly from Asia.

Sources

Victim siteesbpr.com

Source

Indexed 21 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 thegentlemen

thegentlemen is a ransomware group that emerged in September 2025, operating with apparent financial motivations based on their broad targeting of commercial sectors. The group has documented 267 victims across multiple countries, with primary focus on the United States, Thailand, France, Brazil, and India. Their targeting strategy demonstrates a preference for high-value sectors including manufacturing, technology, healthcare, and financial services organizations. Given the group's recent emergence and limited public documentation from established threat intelligence sources such as CISA, FBI, or major security research firms, specific details regarding their country of origin, operational structure, attack methodologies, encryption techniques, and whether they employ ransomware-as-a-service models remain unclear. The relatively high victim count of 267 in a short operational timeframe since September 2025 suggests either an aggressive campaign pace or potential inflation of victim numbers through affiliate operations, though without corroborating intelligence reports, the group's exact operational capabilities and notable campaigns cannot be definitively established. Current intelligence indicates the group remains active as of late 2025, though comprehensive threat profiling requires additional validated reporting from authoritative cybersecurity sources. The group has been linked to 807 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 9, 2025; most recent post August 30, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: the gentlemen.

Timeline of this disclosure

August 30, 2026ESB Puerto Rico Corp listed by thegentlemenon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by thegentlemen

thegentlemen has been linked to 807 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full thegentlemen dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Energy & Utilities sector, which has 168 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, ESB Puerto Rico Corp is reported in Puerto Rico, a country with 2 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by thegentlemen means ESB Puerto Rico Corp 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.
Monitor for the data appearing on thegentlemen'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.