Disclosure context

About Dragonforce

Dragonforce is a relatively new ransomware group that emerged in December 2023, operating with apparent financial motivations based on their targeting patterns and victim selection. The group's origin and potential affiliations remain unclear due to limited public documentation from established threat intelligence sources, though their rapid accumulation of 439 documented victims suggests either sophisticated capabilities or possible connections to existing ransomware infrastructure. Based on their targeting patterns across diverse sectors including manufacturing, business services, technology, and construction, Dragonforce appears to employ opportunistic attack methodologies, though specific initial access vectors, encryption methods, and extortion tactics have not been publicly detailed by major security firms or law enforcement agencies. The group has demonstrated a preference for targeting organizations primarily in English-speaking countries and Western Europe, with the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Italy representing their most frequent victim locations, suggesting possible language capabilities or geographic operational preferences. As of current reporting, Dragonforce appears to remain active given their recent emergence and ongoing victim acquisition, though the lack of detailed public analysis from major threat intelligence organizations indicates either operational security measures that have limited researcher visibility or that the group has not yet conducted sufficiently high-profile attacks to warrant extensive public documentation by CISA, FBI, or established security research firms. The group has been linked to 537 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on December 13, 2023; most recent post May 20, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

March 24, 2026M3 Group listed by Dragonforceon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Not Found sector, which has 4,859 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, M3 Group is reported in LU, a country with 3 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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M3 Group

Claimed by Dragonforce · listed 2 months ago

57d

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Mar 24, 2026
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Dragonforce
Status: Data leaked
Country: LU
Sector: Not Found
Listed on leak site: Mar 24, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

M3 Group is a full-service marketing and public relations agency headquartered in East Lansing, Michigan, with an additional office in Auburn Hills (Detroit area). Founded in 2002 by Tiffany Dowling, the agency offers advertising, branding, marketing automation, PR, video, web, and related services to clients. The firm employs 35+ staff and has been a subsidiary of Reseda Group (a wholly owned entity of Michigan State University Federal Credit Union) since 2022.

Industry: Marketing & Public Relations Agency
Address: 3899 Coolidge Road, 3rd Floor, East Lansing, MI 48823, United States
Employees: 35
Founded: 2002

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been confirmed published by the threat actor. M3 Group handles client business data and is a subsidiary of a credit-union-affiliated entity, meaning exfiltrated data likely includes sensitive business, financial, and HR records. The credit union connection raises the potential for regulated financial data exposure.

Dragonforce claims to have exfiltrated data from M3 Group and has published the data (disclosed status: data_published); no ransom amount or specific data volume was stated in the post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Corporate correspondence
Financial documents
HR documents
Client data
Business strategy/marketing materials
Potentially subsidiary/partner data

What the group claims

Founded in Lansing more than 11 years ago by Dowling, M3 Group prides itself on being the only local agency that offers the most comprehensive array of integrated branding, marketing and advertising services in the mid-Michigan region. M3 Group has grown into one of the largest and most respected agencies in the area. For more than a decade, M3 Group has built and refined strong brands through integrated marketing strategies that keep the client's goals and its bottom line in mind. M3 Group's award-winning staff works across traditional and nontraditional platforms, offering an array of market research and consulting, media planning and buying, website development, social and digital media marketing, public relations and promotions, video and audio production, corporate brand development, and graphic design. Take your brand to the next level by visiting M3Group.biz

The leak post

captured from the group's site

```
{"data":{"count":483,"publications":[{"uuid":"b008b8b7-0e47-416f-adcd-2313d8136de4","created_at":"2026-05-08T20:56:13.122134Z","name":"CF Evans Construction","website":"www.cfevans.com","address":"125 Regional Pkwy Ste 200, Orangeburg, South Carolina, 29118, United States","description":"A recognized leader in the multi-family housing construction industry, CF Evans Construction provides a product for developers. The company has thrived amid six decades.\nThe data of this company includes:\n    Corporate correspondence of senior executives\n    Financial documents\n    HR documents\n    Accounting documents\n    Certificates, contracts, passwords, databases, and much more.","weight":4775795351552,"is_timer_publication_stopped":false,"timer_publication":"2026-05-22T07:48:00Z","try_again":false,"tags":[],"logo_uuid":"f4e582dd-6562-4590-bac8-2b9e5c564853","is_transfering":false},{"uuid":"3827192f-9bb3-490c-9c1c-d28b382510cd","created_at":"2026-05-08T17:53:24.736605Z","name":"CMC Expertise Comptable","website":"cmcexpertise.fr","address":"32 Rue De La Clairière, Fort-de-France,","description":"CMC Expertise Comptable is a certified accounting firm located in Martinique, dedicated t…

Sources

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.