Kendall Auto Group listed on Hunters International leak site

• Ransomware group: Hunters
• Country: United States
• Sector: Retail & E-Commerce
• Announcement date: February 26, 2025

Hunters International claims data breach at Kendall Auto Group

The ransomware group known as Hunters International has officially listed Kendall Auto Group on its dedicated leak site. According to the announcement made by the threat actors, the organization has been targeted in a cyberattack involving both data exfiltration and encryption of internal systems.

The group claims to have successfully compromised the organization's network, leading to the theft of a significant volume of information. This incident follows a pattern of behavior observed in modern ransomware operations, where attackers prioritize the theft of sensitive data to increase their leverage during negotiations.

Details of the alleged attack

The incident was announced on February 26, 2025, with the group claiming the attack took place on the same day. According to the claims made by Hunters International, the breach resulted in the exfiltration and encryption of a massive amount of data from the victim's systems.

Hunters International is a ransomware group that first emerged in 2023. Technical analysis suggests that the group is considered to be derived from the Hive ransomware codebase. It is important to note that the group had previously announced the cessation of its encryption activities in 2025, making this reported activity a notable development in their operational history.

Scope of the claimed data theft

While the group has provided specific metrics regarding the scale of the breach, they have not provided specific details regarding the actual content of the stolen files. The listing provides the following technical details regarding the alleged exfiltration:

• Total data size: 1.3 TB
• Total file count: 1,011,888 files

Despite the high volume of files and the significant size of the dataset, the specific nature of the information—whether it pertains to corporate secrets, financial records, or personal identifiers—remains unconfirmed by the group's announcement.

Organization profile: Kendall Auto Group

Kendall Auto Group is a major automotive retailer operating across the Western United States. The company represents a wide range of vehicle brands and provides a comprehensive suite of services, including new and used vehicle sales, automotive service, parts, and financing solutions.

Potential risks and industry implications

The alleged incident may pose significant risks to the organization's operational continuity and data privacy. Because the organization is a US-based entity, a potential data breach could trigger complex legal processes under various state-level data breach notification laws and relevant sectoral regulations. Such regulations are designed to ensure that affected parties are informed when their sensitive information is compromised.

If the exfiltrated data includes employee or customer information, secondary risks such as identity theft and targeted phishing attacks may occur. This is a common consequence in modern cyberattacks where stolen data is used for further exploitation of the victims.

Given the group's past activities, it is possible that a double extortion method could be employed. Double extortion is a tactic where attackers not only encrypt the victim's data to disrupt operations but also threaten to publish or sell the stolen data on the dark web to pressure the organization into paying the ransom. In such scenarios, even if an organization can restore its systems from backups, the threat of public data exposure remains a critical risk.

Organizations in the retail and automotive sectors can take several defensive steps to mitigate these risks. Implementing robust multi-factor authentication, maintaining offline backups, and conducting regular security awareness training are fundamental practices. Furthermore, maintaining a comprehensive incident response plan and ensuring compliance with regional data protection standards can help an organization respond more effectively to the potential legal and operational fallout of a breach.