ShinyHunters Claims Theft of Council of Europe HR and Payroll Data
ShinyHunters claimed it breached the Council of Europe and stole roughly 297 GB of data, saying it exfiltrated more than 429,000 files from multiple departments and threatening to publish the material unless the organization makes contact by June 16. The gang’s leak-site post described a haul spanning the Secretariat, human resources, payroll administration, parliamentary and conference-related units, and said the cache includes payslips, personnel files, CVs, payroll exports, contract records, and performance evaluations affecting more than 10,000 staff.
The allegedly stolen records contain highly sensitive personal data, including names, addresses, dates of birth, salaries, bank details, tax and social security information, and medical or absence records. The Council of Europe said it is investigating the claims and had not confirmed a breach at the time of reporting, while the incident was linked in coverage to ShinyHunters’ broader run of extortion and data-theft operations involving Salesforce-related intrusions, Snowflake customer breaches, and reported exploitation of an Oracle PeopleSoft zero-day.

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Council of Europe says it is assessing ShinyHunters breach claims
The Council of Europe told BleepingComputer it was investigating and assessing ShinyHunters' claims but had not confirmed that a breach occurred. SecurityWeek likewise reported that the organization had not publicly acknowledged the incident at the time of reporting.
ShinyHunters claims Council of Europe breach and sets June 16 leak deadline
ShinyHunters posted that it had stolen roughly 297 GB of Council of Europe data, including more than 429,000 files from HR, payroll, and other departments, and threatened to publish the data unless contacted by June 16, 2026. The claimed haul allegedly affects over 10,000 staff and includes sensitive personal, financial, and medical information.
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Sources
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ShinyHunters Claims Council of Europe Hack - SecurityWeek
securityweek.com
Open sourceCouncil of Europe investigates ShinyHunters data breach claims
bleepingcomputer.com
Open sourceShinyHunters Claims Theft of 297GB of Council of Europe Data; Claims Unconfirmed As Yet - Malware News - Malware Analysis, News and Indicators
malware.news
Open sourceRansomware Group shinyhunters Hits: coe.int
hookphish.com
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