Summary
On February 16, 2026, the notorious ransomware group Akira announced they had successfully executed a cyberattack against
Charm Diamond Centres (charmdiamondcentres.com), a leading Canadian jewelry retailer. The group claims to have obtained 19GB of sensitive data, including employee and client information, with threats to publish the data if negotiations do not occur.
Incident Report
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Target | Charm Diamond Centres |
| Domain | charmdiamondcentres.com |
| Country | Canada |
| Attacking Group | Akira |
| Date Reported | February 16, 2026 |
| Threat Actor Statement | “Charm Diamond Centres is a jeweler retailer store. Charm Diamond Centres was founded in Nova Scotia by Richard Calder in 1972, the chain is still owned and operated by the Calder family. We will upload almost 19gb of corporate data soon. Employee information (passports, DLs, health information and so on), financials, lots of clients’ files, projects, NDAs, etc.” |
This attack underscores the ongoing threat of ransomware to businesses across all sectors. Organizations are encouraged to regularly update their security measures and maintain robust data protection protocols to mitigate such risks.
Recommended Security Actions
Ransomware attacks are increasingly targeting both enterprise and mid-sized organizations across all sectors. The following steps are critical to reduce impact and prevent future incidents:
- Monitor continuously: Use DeXpose’s dark web and infostealer monitoring platform to detect breached credentials, leaked databases, and threat actor chatter in near real-time—before damage spreads internally.
- Conduct a compromise assessment: Immediately initiate a full incident review to determine how attackers infiltrated your network, what data may have been exfiltrated, and whether any persistence mechanisms remain active.
- Validate your backups: Ensure that your backups are current, encrypted, and stored offline. Utilize immutable backup solutions to defend against ransomware encryption and deletion attempts.
- Apply threat intelligence: Integrate external threat feeds, including DeXpose-provided indicators of compromise (IOCs), into your SIEM or XDR platforms for real-time alerting and correlation.
- Harden employee defenses: Run phishing simulations and enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) across all access points. Attackers often exploit weak or reused credentials sourced from the dark web.
- Engage professional response teams: Involve cybersecurity incident response experts, threat analysts, and legal counsel before initiating any dialogue with ransomware groups or ransom brokers.
How DeXpose Helps You Stay Ahead
At DeXpose, we specialize in early detection and proactive defense. Our hybrid threat intelligence solution combines automated deep/dark web crawling, Telegram and forum monitoring, and real analyst verification to deliver:
- Continuous scanning of ransomware group leak sites, stolen credential markets, and malware log dumps
- Timely alerts for breaches linked to your domains, email addresses, and key personnel
- Intelligence correlation that connects leaked credentials to infostealer malware infections, often weeks before a public ransom demand
- Real-time visibility into supply chain and third-party exposures through passive surveillance of dark web channels
Don’t wait for public disclosure or ransom notices—gain visibility into your cyber exposure now.
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Scan your domain for data breaches:
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Check employee or partner email exposure:
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Disclaimer
DeXpose does not engage in the exfiltration, hosting, redistribution, or purchase of stolen data. All breach information reported here is collected from publicly accessible dark web sources and threat intelligence platforms.
Our mission is to equip organizations with early-warning indicators, contextual threat insights, and actionable intelligence that help them secure their digital assets against evolving cyber threats.
