Was palmettoeyeinstitute.com hit by ransomware?

palmettoeyeinstitute.com was listed by the safepay ransomware operation (United States), 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 safepay ransomware group?

safepay 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 palmettoeyeinstitute.com breach?

safepay published data attributed to palmettoeyeinstitute.com. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Palmetto Eye Institute

listed as palmettoeyeinstitute.com · Claimed by Safepay · listed 5 days ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedSep 8, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Safepay
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Healthcare
Listed on leak site: Sep 8, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Palmetto Eye Institute is an independent ophthalmology practice located in Summerville, South Carolina, founded in 2012 by Dr. Prat Itharat. The practice specializes in cataract surgery (including femtosecond laser-assisted procedures) and comprehensive eye care, serving patients across Berkeley, Dorchester, and surrounding counties.

Industry: Ophthalmology & Eye Care
Address: 515 Carnes Crossing Blvd, Suite C, Summerville, SC 24986
Founded: 2012

Attack summary

Severity: low — The leak post contains only a description of the practice with no stated proof files, no explicit data claims, and no operational impact. The disclosed_status is 'data_published' but no data inventory, proof count, or breach details are provided in the post.

The SafePay group claims to have compromised Palmetto Eye Institute. The leak post does not specify whether data was exfiltrated, encrypted, or both, nor does it detail what data categories are at stake.

low

What the group claims

The practice was founded by Dr. Prat Itharat, a board-certified ophthalmologist who specializes in cataract surgery and comprehensive eye care. …

The leak post

captured from the group's site

Palmetto Eye Institute is an independent ophthalmology practice located in Summerville, South Carolina, serving patients throughout the Berkeley, Dorchester, and surrounding counties.
The practice was founded by Dr. Prat Itharat, a board-certified ophthalmologist who specializes in cataract surgery and comprehensive eye care. Dr. Itharat established the practice in 2012, after practicing in the South Carolina Lowcountry since 2008.
The institute provides specialized eye-care services with a particular focus on cataract evaluation and surgery, including femtosecond laser-assisted cataract procedures and advanced intraocular lens options. Its broader clinical services include comprehensive ophthalmological examinations and diagnosis and management of common eye conditions. The practice emphasizes personalized care and describes itself as 100% independent and not owned by a private-equity organization, allowing physicians to tailor treatment and maintain a more personal relationship with patients.

Sources

Source

Indexed 5 days 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 safepay

The Safepay ransomware group is a newly emerged threat actor first observed in November 2024, demonstrating rapid operational scale with 444 documented victims in a short timeframe, indicating financially motivated cybercriminal activity. Due to the group's recent emergence, publicly documented information about their country of origin, affiliations, and operational model remains limited among established threat intelligence sources. Given the recency of their appearance and lack of detailed technical analysis from major security firms, their specific attack methodologies, initial access vectors, and encryption techniques have not been comprehensively documented in public threat intelligence reporting. The group has demonstrated a broad targeting approach across multiple sectors including manufacturing, technology, education, and healthcare, with primary focus on victims in the United States, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, though no specific high-profile campaigns or notable incidents have been publicly attributed to them by major security vendors or law enforcement agencies. As of the latest available intelligence, Safepay appears to remain active, though comprehensive threat profiling is limited due to the group's recent emergence and the current lack of detailed technical analysis from established cybersecurity research organizations. The group has been linked to 763 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 19, 2024; most recent post September 12, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 8, 2026palmettoeyeinstitute.com listed by safepay on the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by safepay

safepay has been linked to 763 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full safepay dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Healthcare sector, which has 2,608 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, palmettoeyeinstitute.com is reported in United States, a country with 3,165 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by safepay means palmettoeyeinstitute.com 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, CISA (United States), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on safepay'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.