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University Of Georgia

Claimed by ShadowByt3$ · listed 2 months ago

2m
Age
since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

  1. ListedMay 14, 2026
  2. Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group
ShadowByt3$
Status
Data leaked
Country
United States
Sector
Education
Listed on leak site
May 14, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

The University of Georgia (UGA) is a leading public land-grant research university located in Athens, Georgia, established in 1785 as the first state-chartered university in the United States. It serves tens of thousands of students and employs thousands of faculty and staff across a broad range of academic, research, and public service missions. UGA maintains partnerships with state and government agencies including GEMA, GDOT, and various county-level entities.

Industry
Higher Education (Public Research University)
Address
Athens, Georgia, USA
Employees
10000+
Founded
1785

Attack summary

Severity: critical — The breach involves confirmed exfiltration and publication of regulated PII (home addresses, personal phone numbers, ID photos) for university employees at scale, combined with sensitive government infrastructure data (GEMA emergency management, 911 dispatch GIS, GDOT project maps, Asset Forfeiture logs) and internal security-relevant employee classification data, representing a multi-domain critical disclosure affecting both individuals and public safety infrastructure.

ShadowByt3$ claims to have exfiltrated approximately 3.2 MB of raw text files from the University of Georgia, publishing the data on their leak site. The stolen data reportedly includes employee PII, government project data, infrastructure maps, GIS records underpinning 911 dispatch, and internal administrative records.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post
  • Employee home addresses
  • Personal cell and home phone numbers
  • Institutional identification photos
  • Internal project documentation and tracking logs
  • Workforce metadata (position numbers, departmental assignments, schedules)
  • System maintenance and development notes
  • GEMA emergency management project maps
  • Georgia Broadband project data
  • GDOT transportation project data (through 2026)
  • Asset Forfeiture logs
  • County-level GIS data (Athens-Clarke, Bibb) used for 911 dispatch and land taxes
  • UGA Office of the President Mail Tracker records
  • Gov360 anonymous executive coaching logs
  • Subject Matter Expert (SME) identification and work-hour logs
  • Employee classification data (full-time benefited vs. student assistant)

What the group claims

ShadowByt3$ has breached University of Georgia. The full data is on are leak site. We stole approximately 3.2 MB in raw text files. No customers were affected just exployees the following was stolen. - Physical Locations: Home addresses (like the Columbus, GA residential home) and specific office numbers (like Office 2207). - Private Contact Info: Personal cell phone numbers and home phone numbers (e.g., the 404-736-xxxx). - Employee Information: This often includes full names, contact details, and institutional identification photos. - Project Documentation: Information regarding internal university projects, including tracking logs and administrative data for various departments. - Workforce Data: Internal metadata such as position numbers, departmental assignments, and work schedules. - Technical Details: Notes regarding system maintenance and development that could potentially highlight internal processes - Critical Infrastructure: Active project maps for GEMA (Emergency Management), Georgia Broadband, and GDOT (Transportation) through 2026. - Government Records: Access to Asset Forfeiture logs and County-level GIS (Athens-Clarke, Bibb) that underpins 911 dispatch and land taxes. - Leadership Secrets: The UGA Office of the President Mail Tracker and Gov360 anonymous executive coaching logs. - The "SME" Map: we have identified the "Subject Matter Experts" like Noah Abouhamdan, Chad Rupert, and Pat Russell. we know exactly how many hundreds of hours these people have spent on specific pieces of code. - Security Clearances: we know who is a "Benefited" full-time employee (high-value target) versus a "Student Assistant" (low-value entry point).

Sources

Source

Indexed 2 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 ShadowByt3$

ShadowByt3$ is an emerging ransomware group that was first observed in February 2026, appearing to be financially motivated based on its ransomware operations. The group's country of origin and any potential affiliations with other cybercriminal organizations remain unknown due to limited intelligence available on this newly identified threat actor. Given the minimal public documentation available, the group's attack methodology, tools, and operational tactics have not been sufficiently analyzed or reported by major cybersecurity firms or government agencies. No notable campaigns, high-profile victims, or significant ransoms have been publicly documented by CISA, FBI, Mandiant, or other reputable security researchers, with only one known victim reported to date and no specific sector targeting patterns identified. The current operational status of ShadowByt3$ remains unclear due to the limited intelligence available on this recently emerged and relatively unknown ransomware operation. The group has been linked to 13 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on February 25, 2026; most recent post June 16, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

  • May 14, 2026University Of Georgia listed by ShadowByt3$on the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by ShadowByt3$

ShadowByt3$ has been linked to 13 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full ShadowByt3$ dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 1,082 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, University Of Georgia is reported in United States, a country with 3,115 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by ShadowByt3$ means University Of Georgia 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 ShadowByt3$'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.