Summary
On June 2, 2026, the extortion group ShadowByt3$ claimed responsibility for a ransomware attack on Cropwise (Syngenta Group) (operations.cropwise.com), a leading Swiss agriculture company. The group alleges to have stolen sensitive data, including agronomy metrics and user credentials, and is demanding a ransom to prevent data exposure.
Incident Report
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Target | Cropwise (Syngenta Group) |
| Domain | operations.cropwise.com |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Attacking Group | ShadowByt3$ |
| Date Reported | June 2, 2026 |
| Threat Actor Statement | “We have breached you and gained access to the following portals: https://operations.cropwise.com/d/users/sign_in https://accounts.cropwise.com/signin proof: https://mega.nz/folder/25hkSLgY#ELjJaFie-TfES9Z_47KFZA company url: https://operations.cropwise.com/ We are ShadowByt3$ a Extortion as a service group. You have been breached and 10.4MB was stolen. It may seem small but it can affect you every way imaginable. Don’t believe us the following below was stolen: 👤 User Identities and Access Credentials – Account Directory Data: Full names, corporate email addresses, and phone numbers of registered agronomists, regional farm managers, and field staff. – Authentication Metadata: Encrypted password hashes, session tokens, or configured API keys utilized to link automated machinery data feeds to the web dashboard. 🚜 Precision Agronomy and Farm Metrics – Geospatial Boundaries: High-resolution GIS boundary files detailing the exact shapes, coordinates, and property lines of privately owned or leased commercial fields. – Vegetation and Scouting Analyses: Historical NDVI satellite imagery datasets [CWO: Tools for effective monitoring of your crops’ condition syngenta.co.za], past growth tracking matrices, field problem zone flags, and yield prediction models. – Operational Treatment Records: Deep operational histories documenting exact pesticide or fertilizer applications, crop types, seeding timelines, and harvesting schedules. 🚛 Telematics and Fleet Diagnostics – Machinery Tracking Logs: Real-time and archived GPS location paths generated by connected tractors, combines, or sprayers. These logs map out the specific work shifts, operational speeds, and field locations of individual machine drivers. If you contact us then we won’t leak it and show proof that we deleted it. Also we will tell you how to secure your company so you don’t get breached again. We are giving you 48 hours (approx 3 days) to contact us which would be by June 4th 2026. If you fail to reach out to us we will maximize damage by giving it to news outlets, swatting victims, and we will email everyone affected and you would be the next headline. All you have to do is pay 1 million in bitcoin or monero and it goes away.” |
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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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.
