Was Canadian Psychological Association hit by ransomware?

Canadian Psychological Association was listed by the Snatch ransomware operation (Canada), and stolen data was published on the group's leak site. Darkfield tracks this disclosure with the original leak post, screenshot and group context.

Who is the Snatch ransomware group?

Snatch is a ransomware operator tracked by Darkfield. See the full operator dossier for its known victims, sectors targeted, IOCs and leak-site infrastructure.

What data was leaked in the Canadian Psychological Association breach?

Snatch published data attributed to Canadian Psychological Association. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Canadian Psychological Association

Claimed by Snatch · listed 3 years ago

30m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedNov 29, 2023
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Snatch
Status: Data leaked
Country: Canada
Sector: Non-Profit
Listed on leak site: Nov 29, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) is the national professional association representing psychologists across Canada, founded in 1939 and incorporated in 1950. Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, it advocates for the science and practice of psychology, promotes member education and ethics, publishes journals and resources, and works to improve the health and welfare of Canadians. It serves members including psychologists, students, and academics throughout the country.

Industry: Professional Association – Psychology & Mental Health
Address: 141 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 702, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5J3, Canada
Employees: 11-50
Founded: 1939

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been confirmed published by the threat actor. The CPA holds sensitive member PII including professional credentials, potentially mental health-adjacent records, ethics/disciplinary files, and contact data for licensed psychologists across Canada. Exposure of such regulated professional and personal data at a national association scale warrants a high severity rating, approaching critical given the sensitive nature of the membership population.

The Snatch ransomware group claims to have compromised the Canadian Psychological Association and has published data (disclosed status: data_published), suggesting exfiltration of organizational data; 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

Member personal information
Membership records
Professional credentials and certifications
Organizational governance documents
Financial records
Employee data
Contact databases
Ethics and disciplinary records

What the group claims

The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) is the primary organization representing psychologists throughout Canada. It was organized in 1939 and incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act, Part II, in May 1950.Its objectives are to improve the health and welfare of all Canadians; to promote excellence and

Sources

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.

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Disclosure context

About Snatch

Snatch is a ransomware group that emerged in November 2021, operating with primarily financial motivations and targeting organizations across multiple sectors including business services, government, education, manufacturing, and healthcare. The group has compromised at least 142 known victims, with their attacks concentrated primarily in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, and France. Little is publicly documented about Snatch's specific country of origin or affiliations with other cybercriminal organizations, though their operational patterns suggest they function as an independent ransomware operation. The group's attack methodology and specific technical details regarding initial access vectors, encryption methods, and data exfiltration practices have not been extensively documented in public threat intelligence reports from major security firms or government agencies. While Snatch has maintained a notable victim count across diverse geographic regions and industry sectors, there are no widely reported major campaigns or high-profile attacks that have drawn significant public attention or law enforcement action. Based on available public information, Snatch appears to remain an active ransomware operation as of recent reporting periods, though comprehensive details about their current operational status and recent activities are limited in open-source intelligence. The group has been linked to 142 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 29, 2021; most recent post May 16, 2024. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

November 29, 2023Canadian Psychological Association listed by Snatchon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Snatch

Snatch has been linked to 142 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Snatch dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Non-Profit sector, which has 45 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Canadian Psychological Association is reported in Canada, a country with 1,055 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Snatch means Canadian Psychological Association 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.
Report the incident to your national CERT, CCCS (Canada), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on Snatch'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.