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UK Cybercrime Journal: ExfilSquad Emerges BushidoToken
What HappenedIn mid-2026, an emerging cybercriminal group known as ExfilSquad launched a high-profile extortion campaign targeting prominent UK organisations across the public sector, education, and law enforcement, as well as other firms worldwide.Unlike traditional ransomware groups, ExfilSquad does not deploy encryptors or destructive malware. Instead, they operate as a pure data extortion group, stealing data and threatening to publish it on their onion-based Data Leak Site (DLS) if a ransom
2 de Setembro de 2026, 06:00

UK Cybercrime Journal: ExfilSquad Emerges

@BushidoToken Threat Intel

Por:BushidoToken

2 de Setembro de 2026, 06:00

What Happened

In mid-2026, an emerging cybercriminal group known as ExfilSquad launched a high-profile extortion campaign targeting prominent UK organisations across the public sector, education, and law enforcement, as well as other firms worldwide.
Unlike traditional ransomware groups, ExfilSquad does not deploy encryptors or destructive malware. Instead, they operate as a pure data extortion group, stealing data and threatening to publish it on their onion-based Data Leak Site (DLS) if a ransom is not paid.
Several prominent UK entities have confirmed breaches linked to the group:

UK Department for Education (DfE): Approximately 600,000 records stolen from its Help Portal containing parent and staff contact details (names, emails, phone numbers, job titles), plus around 7,000 records from the Turing Portal.
Police National Legal Database (PNLD): Stole 1.9 GB of data (around 135,000 records) containing contact information for over 100,000 serving police officers, staff, and criminal justice professionals, alongside around 21,000 "Ask the Police" public inquiry records.
Newcastle University: Approximately 440,000 records compromised containing applicant and student contact information, personally identifiable information (PII), and admissions database records caused by a technical configuration flaw connecting to an admissions system.

Analysis of the details left on the data leak site revealed that ExfilSquad's primary attack vector involves exploiting misconfigurations in cloud portals, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, internal case management systems, as well as Microsoft Power Pages data tables left publicly accessible without proper authentication.
To force compliance and prove their claims are real, ExfilSquad uploaded multi-gigabyte torrent files for each victim to their TOR leak site. Resecurity noted that ExfilSquad assigns a distinct Torrent Tracker and initial Web Seed per victim.

Analyst Comment

While ExfilSquad is a new group, they appear to be already experienced at running these types of attacks, suggesting they have a history of cybercrime. Plus, ExfilSquad’s recent campaign highlights the growing trend of transitioning from file-encrypting ransomware to extortion driven entirely by cloud and SaaS misconfigurations. Organisations that have invested in defending against endpoint-based threats are often leaving critical business application interfaces exposed.

SaaS platforms continue to be primary targets of English-speaking cybercrime communities. In recent years, customers of major SaaS providers, such as Salesloft, Salesforce, and Snowflake have all been extorted. Microsoft Power Pages portals, CRM databases, and customer support helpdesks frequently hold vast repositories of sensitive contact data and interaction histories. When internet-facing API endpoints or data table permissions are left unauthenticated or unpatched, cybercriminals can systematically scrape massive volumes of data without ever needing to drop a payload or escalate privileges internally.

ExfilSquad’s reliance on torrent distribution further amplifies reputational and operational damage. While gangs like LockBit, Clop, and Akira have previously utilised torrents, ExfilSquad’s operational twist of assigning unique Torrent Trackers and dedicated Web Seeds to individual victims ensures that leaked files distribute rapidly across P2P networks, making it extremely difficult to perform a takedown.

While ExfilSquad’s breaches have largely compromised contact directories and administrative support records, the real-world risks remain significant. Exposing work emails, names, and organisational structures for over 100,000 police officers and civil servants poses distinct social engineering, spear-phishing, and physical security concerns that impacted institutions will have to manage long after the breach occurs.

Defensive Takeaways

Audit Microsoft Power Pages and Public SaaS Tables: Regularly review public data table permissions, web API settings, and unauthenticated browser views across Microsoft Power Pages, CRMs, and customer support portals to ensure backend data tables are not exposed to the public internet.
Harden CRM and Case Management Integrations: Treat external-facing admissions portals, helpdesks, and case management systems as high-risk platforms. Implement strict access controls, conduct routine configuration audits, and enforce proper API token security.
Deploy External Attack Surface Management (EASM): Utilise continuous external attack surface scanning to detect newly exposed web endpoints, misconfigured database connectors, and publicly exposed storage buckets before malicious actors locate them.
Incorporate Pure Extortion into Incident Response Plans: Security teams must adapt incident response playbooks for data-theft-only scenarios. Organisations may seek to establish protocols for monitoring peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and managing public disclosures when stolen data is distributed via torrents.

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@BushidoToken Threat Intel
UK Cybercrime Journal: University of Nottingham Breached by ShinyHunters BushidoToken
What HappenedOn 9 June 2026, the University of Nottingham was listed as a victim on the ShinyHunters Tor data leak site.The attackers leaked over 40GB of billing and payment records, student finance data, and campus portal exports from the University of Nottingham and its Malaysia and China campuses.The data stolen includes contact information, transaction amounts, IP addresses, full names, home addresses, postcodes, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and other internal campus data.
15 de Julho de 2026, 05:00

UK Cybercrime Journal: University of Nottingham Breached by ShinyHunters

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Por:BushidoToken

15 de Julho de 2026, 05:00

What Happened

On 9 June 2026, the University of Nottingham was listed as a victim on the ShinyHunters Tor data leak site.
The attackers leaked over 40GB of billing and payment records, student finance data, and campus portal exports from the University of Nottingham and its Malaysia and China campuses.
The data stolen includes contact information, transaction amounts, IP addresses, full names, home addresses, postcodes, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and other internal campus data.
Further analysis of the leaked data by Have I Been Pwned revealed it also contained over 455,000 unique email addresses along with extensive personal information including ethnicities, disabilities, and passport numbers.
On 10 June 2026, security researcher @nahamike01 uncovered an exposed server belonging to ShinyHunters and found them targeting Oracle PeopleSoft servers using MeshCentral agents. Plus, analysis the bash_history logs on the server uncovered SSH connections to the IP address hosting the ShinyHunters Tor data leak site.
On 11 June 2026, Mandiant and Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) disclosed they have observed active compromise and extortion campaign attributed to UNC6240 (ShinyHunters) targeting Oracle PeopleSoft application infrastructure via a zero-day now tracked as CVE-2026-35273, a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability (CVSS 9.8).

Analyst Comment
ShinyHunters is a prolific feature of current threat landscape. This adversary appears to have a particular focus on the educational sector. Last month in May 2026, ShinyHunters targeted another provider of educational software: Instructure Canvas. A number of other UK universities were also impacted by the Instructure breach.

The education sector in the US and UK has suffered repeated, significant data breaches in recent years. In January 2025, BleepingComputer reported that PowerSchools, a cloud-based software provider, suffered a breach whereby the data of 62.4 million students and 9.5 million teachers was exfiltrated. Also in June 2026, the University of Oxford also disclosed a data breach impacting its CareerConnect platform. Separately, 13 schools in Powys county in Wales were impacted by a data breach in April 2026.

After the Oracle E-Business Suite zero-day campaign by CLOP in October 2025, this campaign by ShinyHunters against Oracle PeopleSoft is yet another blow for Oracle. Google identified over 100 exposed organisations, and noted that 68% are academic institutions, including universities and colleges worldwide. More are likely to have been victimised by ShinyHunters and listed on their Tor data leak site in the coming weeks.

Defensive Takeaways

Patch Oracle PeopleSoft: Internet-facing applications, such as file transfer servers or cloud-based software need to be prioritised for patches and updates. Checking the integrity of such systems while patching is also key to finding undetected compromises. Proactively ingesting event logs and threat hunting for suspicious activities involving these systems is also key to prevent breaches.
Prioritise Education Software Security: Education sector firms or cybersecurity companies with education sector clients must react to the elevated threat, by pen-testing, threat hunting, and threat intelligence sharing. Cybercriminal adversaries like ShinyHunters often exploit internet-facing applications or use stolen credentials for initial access. It is therefore critical to focus on these tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to prevent their attacks.
Follow the Data Breach Alert Playbook: Impacted victims must begin to rotate credentials, and start the laborious task of requesting new identity documents and codes like national insurance numbers or passports. It is also worth investing in some credit monitoring services as well to prevent loans being taken out in your name.

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UK Cybercrime Journal: British Universities Struck by ShinyHunters Before Exam Season BushidoToken
What Happened:On 3 May 2026, ShinyHunters, the English-speaking adolescent cybercrime collective, claimed they breached Instructure by listing them on their Tor data leak site.Instructure is a US-based software provider behind the widely adopted Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). ShinyHunters reportedly exfiltrated 3.65 terabytes of data, spanning 275 million global records from up to 9,000 institutions, before posting extortion messages across university login portals demanding Bitcoin.T
3 de Junho de 2026, 04:00

UK Cybercrime Journal: British Universities Struck by ShinyHunters Before Exam Season

@BushidoToken Threat Intel

Por:BushidoToken

3 de Junho de 2026, 04:00

What Happened:

On 3 May 2026, ShinyHunters, the English-speaking adolescent cybercrime collective, claimed they breached Instructure by listing them on their Tor data leak site.
Instructure is a US-based software provider behind the widely adopted Canvas Learning Management System (LMS).
ShinyHunters reportedly exfiltrated 3.65 terabytes of data, spanning 275 million global records from up to 9,000 institutions, before posting extortion messages across university login portals demanding Bitcoin.
The outage forced prominent UK higher education institutions, including the University of Liverpool, Queen’s University Belfast, and the University of Manchester, to take systems offline and hastily rewrite their end-of-year exam submission schedules.
Instructure confirmed the affected data includes names, student ID numbers, email addresses, and private student-instructor messages. Instructure also confirmed no passwords, financial data, or government IDs were pilfered.
When the initial negotiation deadline passed, ShinyHunters then escalated by defacing Canvas login portals at roughly 330 institutions and pivoting to direct school-by-school extortion.
Following the initial investigation into the breach, Instructure confirmed that ShinyHunters had exploited a vulnerability in its “Free-for-Teacher” account creation system.
To prevent the data from being leaked, Instructure announced it had “reached an agreement with the unauthorised actor” behind the data extortion attack.
According to an expert interviewed by ABC News, while a ransom amount hadn't yet been verified or publicly confirmed, people claiming to have knowledge of the situation estimated the amount was $10 million USD.

Analyst Comment:

Canvas is reportedly the UK’s primary digital learning platform, whose usage grew significantly during the pandemic. The timing of the attack also couldn’t come at a worse time for UK universities. In May, thousands of undergraduate students will be uploading their dissertations and trying to access their course content to prepare for their exams.

Active since 2019, ShinyHunters is a financially motivated data-theft-extortion collective that first emerged publicly in January 2020. Notably, ShinyHunters does not currently deploy ransomware as part of their intrusions. Instead, they exfiltrate data from cloud platforms, software environments, and third-party integrators, then demand a ransom to avoid its public release. SaaS Platforms such as Salesforce, Snowflake, GainSight, SalesLoft Drift and their customers have been targeted by ShinyHunters and adjacent groups in the last couple years.

Instructure is one of the few victims who have likely paid ShinyHunters. Most victims refuse due to not being able to trust that the cybercriminals will stick to their word and delete the stolen data. The consensus across the industry is paying the ransom is never the appropriate option for multiple reasons, such as fuelling future attacks, making your company look like an easy target, and possibly violating sanctions and local ransom payment ban laws. The most likely scenario is that Instructure felt they should pay the ransom to prevent further harm from the release of personal information of millions of students in their system.

Defensive Takeaways:

Enhance Platform Security: ShinyHunters reportedly exploited a vulnerability in Instructure’s Free-for-Teacher system, which highlights the importance of identity security audits alongside standard application penetration testing.
Enhance Logging and Round-the-Clock Monitoring: ShinyHunters reportedly exfiltrated 3.65 terabytes of data from Instructure. Enhanced activity logs and a certified 24/7 SOC monitoring service could have detected these actions by identifying anomalous login events and data exfiltration events to unknown IP addresses.
Create and Test Backup Processes: While Canvas was down, the universities shifted to alternative methods like email and printed paper. This case highlights the importance of business continuity plans (BCPs) along with making sure they are updated and tested.
Be Wary of Second-Order Effects: After a breach of this size, its key to warn users and SOC teams to be vigilant for new waves of phishing emails, brute forcing attacks, and other account takeover methods leveraging the stolen data.
Never Trust a Cybercriminal: In Instructure’s case, the company says it received “digital confirmation of data destruction (shred logs).” However, as Allison Nixon says, it’s completely unprovable because such shred logs or videos can be easily faked.

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