Was anvilarts.org.uk hit by ransomware?

anvilarts.org.uk was listed by the m3rx ransomware operation (United Kingdom), 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 m3rx ransomware group?

m3rx 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 anvilarts.org.uk breach?

m3rx published data attributed to anvilarts.org.uk. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Anvil Arts

listed as anvilarts.org.uk · Claimed by M3Rx · listed 3 months ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedApr 29, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: M3Rx
Status: Data leaked
Country: United Kingdom
Sector: Consumer Services
Listed on leak site: Apr 29, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Anvil Arts is an independent educational charitable trust (The Anvil Trust Limited) and the largest performing arts organisation in Hampshire, UK. It operates three venues in Basingstoke, including The Anvil and The Haymarket, hosting a diverse range of music, theatre, and cultural performances. The organisation relies on donations and is registered under Charity No. 1034961.

Industry: Performing Arts & Cultural Venues
Address: Churchill Way, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 7QR, United Kingdom

Attack summary

Severity: high — 480 GB / 299,000 files have been confirmed as exfiltrated and published. As a charitable arts organisation, this data likely includes PII of donors, customers, and staff at significant scale, constituting a major data breach warranting high severity.

The group m3rx claims to have exfiltrated approximately 480 GB of data comprising around 299,000 files from Anvil Arts, with the data now published. No encryption claim is stated; the disclosure indicates confirmed data exfiltration.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Organisational files (299k files, 480 GB)
Potential donor/supporter records
Potential staff and employment records
Potential financial and booking records
Potential personal data of customers/patrons

What the group claims

Anvil Arts is the largest performing arts organization in Hampshire, operating as an independent charitable trust. It manages three venues in Basingstoke, including The Anvil and The Haymarket, providing a diverse range of performances and cultural events. Stolen: 480gb 299k files

The leak post

captured from the group's site

If you are interested in this data, please contact our support.Tox: 9A1217BEDA4AB77052A25D17CB6FFB34AFA2BE462E607F2FD8E1DF1DDD4CA16A64E18B1A0BF2

Sources

Victim siteanvilarts.org.uk
Leak posthttp://4k6plf4h2cm2nco6ae3inrsxnmqgl6lllmwefydhnlcq4tuhwbj4qpad.onion

Source

Indexed 3 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 m3rx

Based on the limited publicly available information, m3rx is an emerging ransomware group first observed in April 2026 with a relatively small victim count of eight organizations, suggesting they are either a newly formed operation or a smaller-scale criminal enterprise focused on financial gain. The group's origin and affiliations remain unclear, with no documented evidence from major security vendors or law enforcement agencies regarding their geographical base, operational structure, or whether they operate as an independent cell or as part of a larger ransomware-as-a-service ecosystem. Their attack methodology and specific technical capabilities have not been extensively documented by established threat intelligence sources, though their targeting pattern indicates a preference for English-speaking nations including Great Britain, Australia, and the United States, as well as operations in Switzerland and Italy, with victims spanning consumer services, business services, technology, and healthcare sectors. No major campaigns, high-profile victims, or significant ransoms have been publicly reported by CISA, FBI, Mandiant, or other reputable security researchers, likely due to the group's recent emergence and limited scope of operations. Given their recent first observation date and small victim count, m3rx appears to be in early operational stages with their current activity status and long-term viability remaining uncertain. The group has been linked to 29 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on April 29, 2026; most recent post July 12, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

April 29, 2026anvilarts.org.uk listed by m3rxon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by m3rx

m3rx has been linked to 29 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full m3rx dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Consumer Services sector, which has 829 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, anvilarts.org.uk is reported in United Kingdom, a country with 373 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by m3rx means anvilarts.org.uk 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, NCSC (United Kingdom), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on m3rx'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.