Disclosure context

About pear

The Pear ransomware group is a relatively new threat actor that emerged in August 2025, operating with primarily financial motivations and targeting victims across multiple countries and sectors. Based on their recent emergence and limited public documentation, specific details about their country of origin and organizational structure remain unclear, though their targeting patterns suggest a financially-driven operation that may operate independently or as part of a smaller ransomware-as-a-service model. With 65 documented victims since their August 2025 debut, the group has demonstrated a preference for targeting organizations in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, and Switzerland, with particular focus on healthcare, business services, manufacturing, and technology sectors. Their attack methodology and specific technical details have not been extensively documented by major threat intelligence firms or law enforcement agencies, though their rapid victim acquisition suggests they have established effective initial access and encryption capabilities. Notable campaigns and high-profile attacks have not been publicly detailed by CISA, FBI, or major security research organizations, likely due to the group's recent emergence and relatively small scale compared to established ransomware operations. As of late 2025, Pear appears to remain active given their recent emergence and ongoing victim targeting across multiple geographic regions and industry verticals. The group has been linked to 87 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on August 5, 2025; most recent post May 20, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

March 26, 2026Monmouth University listed by pearon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 694 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Monmouth University is reported in United States, a country with 7,392 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

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.

Ransomware victim disclosure

← All victims

Monmouth University

Claimed by pear · listed 2 months ago

55d

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Mar 26, 2026
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: pear
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Mar 26, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Monmouth University is a private university located in West Long Branch, New Jersey, offering more than 55 undergraduate and graduate programs across multiple schools and departments. The university maintains a 12:1 student-to-teacher ratio, 24 Division I sports teams, and over 120 student clubs and organizations. It is ranked among the top private universities for access and excellence, with 99% of students receiving financial aid.

Industry: Higher Education (Private University)
Address: 400 Cedar Avenue, West Long Branch, New Jersey 07764, United States
Employees: 1001-5000
Founded: 1933

Attack summary

Severity: high — The status is 'data_published', indicating confirmed exfiltration and public release of data from a university that holds sensitive PII including student records, financial aid information, and staff data — categories that may include FERPA-regulated educational records and financial information at meaningful scale.

The ransomware group 'pear' claims to have attacked Monmouth University and has published data (disclosed status: data_published), suggesting exfiltration of university data; no specific ransom amount or data volume was stated in the post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

University records
Student data
Faculty and staff information
Financial aid records
Administrative documents

What the group claims

Private university in West Long Branch, New Jersey

Sources

Victim sitemonmouth.edu
Leak posthttp://pearsmob5sn44ismokiusuld34pnfwi6ctgin3qbvonpoob4lh3rmtqd.onion/Companies/monmouth

Source

Indexed 2 months 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.