Was McDonalds India hit by ransomware?

McDonalds India was listed by the Everest ransomware operation (India), 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 Everest ransomware group?

Everest 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 McDonalds India breach?

Everest published data attributed to McDonalds India. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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McDonalds India

Claimed by Everest · listed 6 months ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedJan 20, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Everest
Status: Data leaked
Country: India
Sector: Hospitality and Tourism
Listed on leak site: Jan 20, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

McDonald's India is the Indian franchise operation of McDonald's, one of the world's largest fast-food chains, serving burgers, fries, and related items across hundreds of outlets in India. The Indian operations are split between two master franchisees: Hardcastle Restaurants (west and south India) and Connaught Plaza Restaurants (north and east India). McDonald's India operates a large customer-facing and employee-facing infrastructure supporting thousands of staff and millions of customers.

Industry: Quick Service Restaurants (Fast Food)

Attack summary

Severity: medium — The disclosure is marked as data_published, suggesting exfiltration and release of some data rather than a mere listing, but the leak post is extremely sparse with no described data types, volume, or proof files. Without evidence of regulated/sensitive data (PII at scale, financial records, etc.) being confirmed in the post, a medium rating is appropriate pending further corroboration.

The Everest ransomware group claims to have published data obtained from McDonald's India, with the disclosure status marked as data_published. The leak post itself is minimal and provides no specific detail on the volume, type of data exfiltrated, or whether encryption was also performed.

medium

Original description

AI-summarised, not from the leak post

McDonald’s India, a subsidiary of the global fast-food giant, McDonald's Corporation, operates in India through two business entities, Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt. Ltd for North & East India and Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd for West & South India. The company has revolutionized the fast-food industry in India since its establishment in 1996 with its menu of burgers, fries, drinks, and localized food items. With their extensive reach, they've significantly influenced India's quick-service restaurant segment.

The leak post

captured from the group's site

© 2026, All rights reserved
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Sources

Leak posthttp://ransomocmou6mnbquqz44ewosbkjk3o5qjsl3orawojexfook2j7esad.onion/news/McDonalds_India/

Source

Indexed 6 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.

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Disclosure context

About Everest

Everest is a financially-motivated ransomware group that emerged in September 2021, operating with a focus on profit-driven extortion campaigns against organizations primarily in the United States and Europe. The group's country of origin and specific affiliations remain undocumented in public threat intelligence reporting, though their operational patterns suggest they likely operate as an independent entity rather than a formal ransomware-as-a-service model. Limited public documentation exists regarding Everest's specific attack methodologies, initial access vectors, or technical capabilities, though their victim profile indicates they employ standard ransomware tactics targeting a diverse range of sectors including healthcare, technology, business services, and manufacturing organizations. Since their emergence, Everest has claimed responsibility for attacks against 339 victims across multiple countries, with the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and Spain representing their primary geographic targets, though no specific high-profile incidents or major ransoms have been publicly documented by law enforcement or major security firms. As of current reporting, Everest appears to remain an active threat actor, though the limited public intelligence available suggests they operate as a lower-tier ransomware group compared to more prominent and well-documented criminal organizations. The group has been linked to 369 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 9, 2021; most recent post May 29, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

January 20, 2026McDonalds India listed by Evereston the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Everest

Everest has been linked to 369 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Everest dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Hospitality and Tourism sector, which has 452 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, McDonalds India is reported in India, a country with 381 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Everest means McDonalds India 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, CERT-In (India), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on Everest'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.