BitPaymer is a financially-motivated ransomware group that emerged in August 2017, operating as a targeted ransomware variant primarily focused on high-value enterprise victims rather than mass distribution campaigns. The group is believed to have connections to the Evil Corp cybercriminal organization and operates independently rather than as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model, with suspected ties to Eastern European threat actors. BitPaymer operators typically gain initial access through spear-phishing campaigns, exploit kits, or by leveraging compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials, often using living-off-the-land techniques and legitimate administrative tools to move laterally through networks before deploying their custom ransomware payload that employs RSA and RC4 encryption algorithms. The group has been observed exfiltrating sensitive data before encryption to enable double extortion tactics, threatening to publicly release stolen information if ransom demands are not met. Notable BitPaymer campaigns have targeted critical infrastructure and large enterprises across the United States, Germany, France, Mexico, and Spain, with documented attacks against organizations in critical manufacturing, healthcare, government facilities, and IT sectors, though specific high-profile victims and ransom amounts have not been widely disclosed in public reporting. BitPaymer activity has significantly declined since 2019-2020, with many security researchers suggesting the group has either ceased operations or transitioned to other ransomware variants as law enforcement pressure increased on affiliated cybercriminal networks. The group has been linked to 9 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on August 25, 2017; most recent post November 10, 2019. The operation is currently inactive.
Also tracked as: FriedEx, IEncrypt.
Sector and geography
This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Critical Manufacturing sector, which has 55 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Pilz is reported in Germany, a country with 695 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.
