Ransomware victim disclosure

Pearson Ford

Claimed by play · listed 8 hours ago

Today

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Jun 6, 2026
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: play
Status: Data leaked
Country: GB
Sector: Transportation/Logistics
Listed on leak site: Jun 6, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Pearson Ford is an automotive dealership operating under the Ford brand. Based on the domain www.pearsonford.com, it is a regional or local car sales and service business.

Industry: Automotive Retail

Attack summary

Severity: low — No proof files, screenshots, or data inventory are documented in the available post excerpt. Disclosure status is 'data_published' but without evidence of sensitive data exfiltration or operational impact details, risk remains unconfirmed.

The Play ransomware group claims to have attacked Pearson Ford and published data. No specific details on encryption, exfiltration method, or data types are provided in the truncated post.

low

What the group claims

United States

Sources

Victim sitewww.pearsonford.com
Leak posthttp://j75o7xvvsm4lpsjhkjvb4wl2q6ajegvabe6oswthuaubbykk4xkzgpid.onion/topic.php?id=64thX5rrKSMtGp

Source

Indexed 8 hours 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 play

**Overview:** Play (also known as PlayCrypt) is a financially motivated ransomware group that emerged in late 2022, conducting targeted attacks against organizations across multiple sectors with a focus on financial extortion. **Origin & Affiliation:** The group's country of origin remains unclear based on public reporting, though they appear to operate independently rather than as a traditional ransomware-as-a-service model. **Attack Methodology:** Play ransomware operators typically gain initial access through compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials and exploit valid accounts, then move laterally through networks using tools like Cobalt Strike before deploying their custom ransomware payload. The group employs double extortion tactics, stealing sensitive data before encryption and threatening to publish it on their leak site if ransom demands are not met. **Notable Campaigns:** According to CISA advisories, Play has targeted over 300 entities globally since its emergence, with significant impacts on critical infrastructure sectors including healthcare, education, and government services, though specific ransom amounts and individual victim details vary in public reporting. **Current Status:** Play remains an active threat as of 2024, continuing to target organizations primarily in North America and Europe according to ongoing security researcher observations and law enforcement warnings. The group has been linked to 1,299 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 26, 2022; most recent post June 6, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: PlayCrypt.

Timeline of this disclosure

June 6, 2026Pearson Ford listed by playon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Transportation/Logistics sector, which has 847 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Pearson Ford is reported in GB, a country with 309 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.