Disclosure context

About Royal

Royal is a financially motivated ransomware group that emerged in November 2022, quickly establishing itself as a significant threat with over 200 documented victims across multiple sectors. The group is believed to operate independently rather than as a ransomware-as-a-service model, though their exact country of origin remains unclear based on publicly available intelligence. Royal primarily gains initial access through phishing campaigns and exploitation of remote desktop protocols, subsequently deploying custom ransomware that encrypts victim files while exfiltrating sensitive data for double extortion tactics. The group has demonstrated a preference for targeting critical infrastructure and public services, with notable attacks against educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and government entities primarily in the United States, though they have also significantly impacted organizations across Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and France. Their encryption methodology involves custom-built malware that systematically encrypts files while maintaining persistence on compromised networks. As of recent reporting from federal agencies including CISA and FBI advisories, Royal remains an active threat with ongoing campaigns targeting organizations across their preferred sectors, particularly focusing on entities with limited cybersecurity resources that may be more likely to pay ransom demands. The group has been linked to 211 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 4, 2022; most recent post July 19, 2023. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

July 19, 2023Braintree Public Schools listed by Royalon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 694 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Braintree Public Schools is reported in United States, a country with 7,392 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.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Braintree Public Schools

Claimed by Royal · listed 3 years ago

34m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Jul 19, 2023
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Royal
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Jul 19, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Braintree Public Schools is a public school district serving students from kindergarten through high school in Braintree, Massachusetts. It operates as an independent district under the municipal government of Braintree, MA. The district serves the educational needs of the city of Braintree and surrounding areas.

Industry: K-12 Public Education
Address: Braintree, Massachusetts, United States

Attack summary

Severity: critical — Data has been published by the threat actor targeting a K-12 public school district, which almost certainly contains PII of minors (students), staff records, and other regulated educational data (FERPA-protected). Exfiltration and publication of children's educational records constitutes a critical severity incident.

The Royal ransomware group claims an attack on Braintree Public Schools with data published, indicating confirmed exfiltration of district data. The disclosed status is 'data_published', suggesting sensitive information has been released publicly.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Student records
Staff/employee records
Administrative documents
Potentially personally identifiable information (PII) of minors
Financial records

What the group claims

Braintree Public Schools is an independent public school district which serves the kindergarten through high school educational needs of the city of Braintree, Massachusetts and the surrounding areas.

Sources

Victim sitebraintreema.gov
Leak posthttp://royal4ezp7xrbakkus3oofjw6gszrohpodmdnfbe5e4w3og5sm7vb3qd.onion/NotHkWtvctq3b4QOGJ3kYs46VE4cSuYY

Source

Indexed 3 years 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.