Disclosure context

About Blackbyte

BlackByte is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that emerged in October 2021, primarily motivated by financial gain through double extortion tactics targeting organizations across multiple sectors. The group is suspected to operate from Russia or former Soviet states based on their use of Russian-language forums and avoidance of targeting organizations in Commonwealth of Independent States countries, though they maintain no confirmed links to other established ransomware families. BlackByte operators typically gain initial access through vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers, phishing campaigns, and exploitation of remote desktop protocol (RDP) services, employing tools such as Cobalt Strike for lateral movement and data exfiltration before deploying their custom ransomware payload that uses AES-256 encryption with RSA-2048 key protection. The group has demonstrated particular focus on critical infrastructure sectors, with the FBI and CISA issuing joint advisories in February 2022 highlighting attacks against organizations in government, healthcare, manufacturing, and education sectors, including notable incidents affecting San Francisco's transportation authority and multiple healthcare systems across the United States. BlackByte remains active as of 2024, continuing to evolve their tactics and maintain their leak site for publishing stolen data from victims who refuse to pay ransoms. The group has been linked to 147 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on October 4, 2021; most recent post July 30, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

October 4, 2023Meridian Cooperative listed by Blackbyteon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Food & Agriculture sector, which has 13 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Meridian Cooperative 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

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Meridian Cooperative

Claimed by Blackbyte · listed 3 years ago

31m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Oct 4, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Blackbyte
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Food & Agriculture
Listed on leak site: Oct 4, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Meridian Cooperative is an enterprise software provider purpose-built for utility providers across the United States. Its integrated suite covers consumer billing, financial management, GIS, advanced analytics, cybersecurity, IT, and field operations. The company operates as a cooperative and has announced a planned merger with NISC.

Industry: Utility Technology & Enterprise Software

Attack summary

Severity: high — Meridian Cooperative serves utility providers nationwide with systems encompassing billing, financials, GIS, cybersecurity, and field operations. A breach of an enterprise software cooperative servicing critical infrastructure utilities constitutes significant exposure of sensitive operational and potentially customer data. The disclosed status is data_published, confirming exfiltration has occurred, and the downstream risk to utility operators amplifies severity.

Blackbyte claims to have compromised Meridian Cooperative and has published data (disclosed status: data_published), though no specific data volume or ransom amount was stated in the post. The nature of any exfiltrated data has not been itemised in the truncated leak post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Business operations data
Utility customer data
Financial management records
GIS and asset intelligence data
IT and enterprise system data
Cybersecurity infrastructure details
Analytics and reporting data

What the group claims

Meridian Cooperative is the only enterprise solution that delivers flexible leading-edge software, services, and technology to utility providers across the country. With solutions ranging from consumer billing and finance to IT, GIS, advanced analytics, cybersecurity, and operations, our enterprise suite provides the tools utilities need to manage business from the office to the field efficiently and securely.

Sources

Victim sitemeridian.coop/

Source

Indexed 3 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.