Akira Ransomware Targets Consolidated Restaurant Operations

Ransomware Attacks
Akira Ransomware Targets Consolidated Restaurant Operations

Summary

On October 17, 2025, the notorious ransomware group Akira publicly announced a successful cyberattack against
Consolidated Restaurant Operations, Inc. (croinc.com), a leading entity in the U.S. food and drinks sector.
The group claims to have exfiltrated 38GB of sensitive data, including employee and financial documents, threatening to disclose it unless their demands are met.


Incident Report

Field Details
Target Consolidated Restaurant Operations, Inc.
Domain croinc.com
Country USA
Attacking Group Akira
Date Reported October 17, 2025
Threat Actor Statement “Consolidated Restaurant Operations, Inc. (CRO) operates more full-service and franchise restaurants internationally in addition to catering events. We are ready to upload 38gb of corporate documents. Scans of employee documents (Passports, driver licenses, medical information, SSNs and other docs), lots of confidentiality agreements, detailed financials, NDAs, police reports, etc.”

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.


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.

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