Ransomware Group thegentlemen Hits: Sarku Japan
Summary
In the latest cybersecurity news, Sarku Japan — an organization based in US — has fallen victim to a ransomware attack conducted by the group thegentlemen. This data breach, discovered on 2026-09-15T07:08:16.159987+00:00, underscores the increasing need for proactive cybersecurity defenses as we continue through 2026.
Incident Report
| Attribute | Information |
|---|---|
| Target Organization | Sarku Japan |
| Threat Group | thegentlemen |
| Summary | sarkujapan.com zoominfo.com/c/sarku-japan/33898946 SARKU Japan Japan’s #1 independent service & wholesale network for foreign cars — founded 1993 in Chiba by Texan David J. Jones (in Japan since 1989) after seeing that owners of European/American cars in Japan were “orphans”: parts take 6–8 weeks from Europe, service is scarce. SARKU built the full foreign-car infrastructure: 9 service centers (8 Kanto + Nagoya), a wholesale yard of ~4,000 imported cars (one of Japan’s two largest), a parts warehouse of 30,000+ SKUs worth ¥700M+ (also one of Japan’s two largest), plus procurement/export arms via US offices in Seattle (since 1997) and Florida — selling 20,000+ cars and serving 60,000+ active customers (~150 staff from 15 countries; ~120K monthly site visitors, 170K+ downloaded car-buying guides). Since 2018 it’s owned by the Netherlands’ Louwman Group (Europe’s largest family-run dealer group, est. 1923). Motto: “Foreign cars. Japanese precision.” |
| Date of Breach | 2026-09-14T17:32:03+00:00 |
| Discovery Date | 2026-09-15T07:08:16.159987+00:00 |
| Region | US |
| Target Domain | sarkujapan.com |
| Business Sector | Retail & E-Commerce |
How to reduce your ransomware risk
Most ransomware intrusions start with a stolen password or a phishing email. A few proactive steps sharply cut your exposure:
- dark web monitoring — close the gap attackers exploit.
- data breach monitoring — close the gap attackers exploit.
Want to know if you’re already exposed? Run a free scan with the HookPhish data breach checker.
Disclaimer
HookPhish does not engage in the exfiltration, downloading, taking, hosting, viewing, reposting, or disclosure of any stolen information. All breach data reported here is sourced from publicly available threat intelligence feeds for awareness purposes only.
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