Was Pellino (Michael and Richard Pellino) hit by ransomware?

Pellino (Michael and Richard Pellino) was listed by the safepay ransomware operation as a victim being extorted; data had not been published at the time of listing. Darkfield tracks this disclosure with the original leak post, screenshot and group context.

Who is the safepay ransomware group?

safepay is a ransomware operator tracked by Darkfield. See the full operator dossier for its known victims, sectors targeted, IOCs and leak-site infrastructure.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Pellino (Michael and Richard Pellino)

Claimed by Safepay · listed 3 hours ago

Today

Age

since listed · listed for ransom

Status timeline

ListedSep 22, 2026

Current state: Listed for ransom

At a glance

Group: Safepay
Status: Listed for ransom
Sector: Mechanical/Engineering
Listed on leak site: Sep 22, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Pellino is a mechanical engineering company founded in 1989 by Michael and Richard Pellino. The company has developed over three decades of experience in mechanical services and operations.

Industry: Mechanical Engineering
Founded: 1989

Attack summary

Severity: low — No clear proof files, screenshots, or data samples are advertised. The leak post does not coherently describe the attack, exfiltrated data, or operational impact. The listing appears nominal only.

SafePay group claims to have compromised Pellino; however, the leak post is largely incoherent and does not clearly describe what data was accessed, whether encryption occurred, or what specific information is at risk. The post appears to be a concatenation of unrelated company descriptions.

low

What the group claims

Founded in 1989 by Michael and Richard Pellino, the company has developed more than three decades of experience in mechanical services.

The leak post

captured from the group's site

# SafePay ransomware has never provided and does not provide the RaaS
It serves as the country's primary online point of contact between public institutions and citizens, providing government information, administrative procedures, … 
Its headquarters and main wastewater-treatment facility are located at Industriering 28 in Lyss. The organization also operates the ARA Messen … 
Established in January 1970 as a regional computer-services center, the company has developed into a publicly listed systems integrator providing … 
The company is based in Aesch near Basel and has developed from a traditional carpentry business founded by Ernst Stöcklin … 
The company is headquartered in Langenfeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, and is legally registered as Karl Kuntze (GmbH & Co.), HRA 16336 … 
The organization identifies itself as one of the principal private healthcare providers in the region and serves patients from Coahuila … 
The organization is jointly owned by Guardian Angels Senior Services of Elk River and Cassia, an Augustana/Elim affiliation. Its headquarters … 
The business traces its origins to 1963 and has operated under the Neumerkel GmbH name since 1994. Its product portfolio … 
…

Screenshot of the leak post

Leak screenshot for Pellino (Michael and Richard Pellino)

Sources

Leak posthttp://safepaypfxntwixwjrlcscft433ggemlhgkkdupi2ynhtcmvdgubmoyd.onion

Source

Indexed 3 hours 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 safepay

The Safepay ransomware group is a newly emerged threat actor first observed in November 2024, demonstrating rapid operational scale with 444 documented victims in a short timeframe, indicating financially motivated cybercriminal activity. Due to the group's recent emergence, publicly documented information about their country of origin, affiliations, and operational model remains limited among established threat intelligence sources. Given the recency of their appearance and lack of detailed technical analysis from major security firms, their specific attack methodologies, initial access vectors, and encryption techniques have not been comprehensively documented in public threat intelligence reporting. The group has demonstrated a broad targeting approach across multiple sectors including manufacturing, technology, education, and healthcare, with primary focus on victims in the United States, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, though no specific high-profile campaigns or notable incidents have been publicly attributed to them by major security vendors or law enforcement agencies. As of the latest available intelligence, Safepay appears to remain active, though comprehensive threat profiling is limited due to the group's recent emergence and the current lack of detailed technical analysis from established cybersecurity research organizations. The group has been linked to 805 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 19, 2024; most recent post September 22, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 22, 2026Pellino (Michael and Richard Pellino) listed by safepay on the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by safepay

safepay has been linked to 805 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full safepay dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Mechanical/Engineering sector.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by safepay means Pellino (Michael and Richard Pellino) appeared on a ransomware extortion site and is being pressured to pay before any publication. 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.
Monitor for the data appearing on safepay'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.