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National Institute of Materials Physics

Claimed by Nova · listed 8 months ago

10 GB
Data size
7m
Age
since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

  1. ListedNov 23, 2025
  2. Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group
Nova
Status
Data leaked
Country
Romania
Sector
Education
Listed on leak site
Nov 23, 2025
Data size
10 GB

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

The National Institute of Materials Physics is a scientific research institute located in Bucharest, Romania. It conducts fundamental and applied research and development in the fields of solid state physics and materials science. It operates as a public research institution under Romania's national research framework.

Industry
Scientific Research & Development (Materials Physics)
Address
Bucharest, Romania

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been confirmed published (disclosed status: data_published) with 10 GB exfiltrated from a government-affiliated scientific research institute, likely containing research data, personnel records, and potentially sensitive intellectual property or government-funded research outputs.

The Nova ransomware group claims to have exfiltrated 10 GB of data from the National Institute of Materials Physics and has published the data following the company's non-response. No specific data categories are described beyond the volume disclosed.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post
  • Exfiltrated institutional data (10 GB)

What the group claims

Romania Scientific Institute in Bucharest. He is engaged in fundamental and applied research and development, in particular in the field of solid state physics and materials research.

The leak post

captured from the group's site
Desysweb is a comprehensive technology solutions integrator specializing in telecommunications and IT services, including managed services and a Security Operation Center. With over 200 clients and more than 13 years of experience, they offer personalized consulting, high-quality materials, and competitive pricing. The company is ISO 27001:2022 certified, ensuring robust information security and data protection. Desysweb operates nationally with a presence in eight provinces and is committed to delivering tailored projects and 24/7 customer support through a team of certified engineers. - Los sistemas de la empresa están encriptados con más de 60 mil archivos en múltiples servidores. Tienes tiempo de contactarte con nuestro departamento a través de los canales indicados en el archivo de recuperación que está dentro de los sistemas encriptados. Una vez que termine la cuenta regresiva, ya no será posible recuperar la información y tus datos se perderán. Estamos listos para desencriptar cada uno de los archivos. Contáctanos cuanto antes.
Since the company didn't reach us, Data has been Leaked.
Since the company didn't reach us, Data has been Leaked.
CHARLES CONSEIL COORDINATION (3CCC)…

Sources

Source

Indexed 8 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.

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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 183 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on April 28, 2025; most recent post July 10, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

  • November 23, 2025National Institute of Materials Physics listed by novaon the group's public leak site
Data size
10 GB

Other recent disclosures by nova

nova has been linked to 183 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full nova dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 1,082 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, National Institute of Materials Physics is reported in Romania, a country with 13 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by nova means National Institute of Materials Physics 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 nova'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.