Was Benny Gantz hit by ransomware?

Benny Gantz was listed by the Handala ransomware operation (Israel), 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 Handala ransomware group?

Handala 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 Benny Gantz breach?

Handala published data attributed to Benny Gantz. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Benny Gantz

Claimed by Handala · listed 2 years ago

22m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedSep 23, 2024
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Handala
Status: Data leaked
Country: Israel
Listed on leak site: Sep 23, 2024

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Benny Gantz is a former Israeli Defense Minister. This appears to be a targeting of an individual political figure rather than a corporate entity.

Industry: Government / Public Figure

Attack summary

Severity: high — Confirmed exfiltration and publication of confidential communications from a high-profile political figure with security/defense background; significant operational and reputational impact regardless of corporate classification.

Handala claims to have exfiltrated approximately 35,000 confidential emails from Benny Gantz's office, describing them as containing records of sensitive meetings. The group has published a sample of the data.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Confidential emails
Meeting records

The group's post references roughly partial sample published proof files.

What the group claims

35/000 Confidential Emails of Benny Gantz Publish for First Time In recent days, we found out that Benny Gantz has made many confidential and destructive meetings at his office! We have been with this former defense minister of the Zionist regime for many years! To warn him, we publish only a small part of the…

Sources

Leak posthttp://vmjfieomxhnfjba57sd6jjws2ogvowjgxhhfglsikqvvrnrajbmpxqqd.onion/?p=216

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 Handala

Handala is a recently emerged ransomware group that first appeared in May 2024, primarily motivated by financial gain with potential geopolitical overtones given their targeting patterns. The group's country of origin remains unclear, though their focus on Israeli targets alongside Western nations suggests possible Middle Eastern connections or sympathies, and it is unknown whether they operate as a standalone group or utilize a Ransomware-as-a-Service model. Limited public information exists regarding their specific attack methodologies, initial access vectors, or technical capabilities, though their rapid accumulation of 164 documented victims suggests they employ effective compromise techniques across multiple sectors including technology, government, energy, and healthcare organizations. The group has demonstrated a clear preference for targeting victims in Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom, with additional activity observed in Iran and the UAE, indicating either opportunistic targeting or strategic selection based on geopolitical considerations. Given their recent emergence and continued victim acquisitions throughout 2024, Handala appears to remain active, though comprehensive technical analysis and law enforcement reporting on their operations remain limited due to their relatively short operational history. The group has been linked to 182 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on May 26, 2024; most recent post April 15, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 23, 2024Benny Gantz listed by Handalaon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Handala

Handala has been linked to 182 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Handala dossier →

Sector and geography

Geographically, Benny Gantz is reported in Israel, a country with 156 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Handala means Benny Gantz 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-IL (Israel), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on Handala'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.