Disclosure context

About unsafe

The "unsafe" ransomware group is a relatively new threat actor that emerged in December 2022, operating with primarily financial motivations through ransomware deployment and extortion schemes. Based on limited public documentation, the group's origin and specific affiliations remain unclear, though their operational patterns suggest they function as an independent ransomware operation rather than a established Ransomware-as-a-Service model. With 14 documented victims since their emergence, the group has demonstrated a focused targeting approach, primarily concentrating their attacks on manufacturing organizations, transportation and logistics companies, and government entities across the United States, Switzerland, and France. Their attack methodology and specific technical capabilities have not been extensively documented by major security research organizations such as CISA, FBI, or Mandiant, limiting detailed analysis of their initial access vectors, encryption methods, or data exfiltration practices. No major high-profile campaigns or significant law enforcement actions have been publicly reported against this group, likely due to their relatively recent emergence and smaller scale of operations compared to more established ransomware families. Current intelligence suggests the group remains active as of available reporting, though their limited public footprint makes definitive status assessment challenging without additional threat intelligence sources. The group has been linked to 14 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on December 21, 2022; most recent post January 14, 2024. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

December 21, 2022Whatcom County Library System listed by unsafeon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Government sector, which has 509 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Whatcom County Library System 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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Whatcom County Library System

Claimed by unsafe · listed 3 years ago

$7.00M

Est. revenue

company size proxy

41m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Dec 21, 2022
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: unsafe
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Government
Listed on leak site: Dec 21, 2022
Estimated revenue: $7.00M

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) is a public library system serving Whatcom County, Washington State, operating multiple branch locations including Blaine, Deming, Everson, Ferndale, and Lummi Island, plus a bookmobile service. It provides books, digital content, community programs, and various lending services to county residents. Annual revenue is reported at approximately $7 million.

Industry: Public Library System
Address: 610 3rd Street, Blaine, WA 98230 (headquarters/main branch listed first); multiple branches across Whatcom County, WA

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data is confirmed as published (data_published status) by the threat actor, indicating successful exfiltration from a public government entity whose records likely include patron PII and staff data. Publication of data from a government-affiliated public institution warrants high severity even without a confirmed data volume.

The ransomware group 'unsafe' claims to have attacked Whatcom County Library System, with the disclosure status listed as 'data_published', indicating data has been exfiltrated and published. 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

Potentially library patron records
Employee records
Operational/administrative data

What the group claims

country: US - revenue: 7.00M

Sources

Victim sitewcls.org

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.