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Westrop Primary & Nursery School

Ransomware attack by Thegentlemen · Disclosed October 3, 2026 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom

westropprimaryschool.co.uk

Date Disclosed
Oct 3, 2026
2026
Threat Group
Thegentlemen
926 total victims
Country
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Industry
Education

ThreatAI Analysis

Compiled from this incident record and the threat intelligence profile for Thegentlemen. Figures and technique mappings are quoted from the source data, not inferred.

Thegentlemen listed Westrop Primary & Nursery School on its dark web leak site on 3 October 2026; it is a state-funded community school serving children aged 2-11 in Highworth, UK.

About Westrop Primary & Nursery School

Westrop Primary & Nursery School is a state-funded community school in Highworth, Swindon (Wiltshire, UK), founded in 1969, serving children aged 2–11. It currently has ~380 enrolled students (capacity 495), with 18.6% on free school meals and 16.3% on SEN support. The school employs ~47 staff (15 teachers + 32 teaching assistants, 20:1 student-teacher ratio) under Headteacher Cindy Acres (since 2018). Annual income is approximately £2 million (~£5,461 per pupil), with a healthy £75K surplus and ~£100K reserves. Rated "Good" by Ofsted (October 2022, maintained since 2012), though 2024/25 exam results showed weaker math progress and 0% at higher standards compared to strong 2018/19 performance. It runs 11 primary classes plus a three-room nursery and is known for its Forest School program and strong pupil premium support.

Source record: ransomware.live

About the Thegentlemen group

The Gentlemen is a RaaS group that emerged in July–August 2025, rapidly claiming over 320 victims across 17+ countries by offering affiliates a 90% revenue share, deploying a Go-based locker against Windows, Linux, NAS, and BSD systems; a compromised C2 server in 2026 revealed more than 1,570 linked victims. Thegentlemen has listed 835 victims since February 2023.

How Thegentlemen is documented to operate

Valid Accounts T1078 Stealth Persistence

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Compromised credentials may be used to bypass access controls placed on various resources on systems within the network and may even be used for persistent access to remote systems and externally available services, such as VPNs, Outlook Web Access, network devices, and remote desktop. Compromised credentials may also grant an adversary increased privilege to specific systems or access to restricted areas of the network.

Mitigations: Application Developer Guidance, User Training, Password Policies, User Account Management, Privileged Account Management, Multi-factor Authentication

MITRE ATT&CK reference →
External Remote Services T1133 Persistence Initial Access

Adversaries may leverage external-facing remote services to initially access and/or persist within a network. Remote services such as VPNs, Citrix, and other access mechanisms allow users to connect to internal enterprise network resources from external locations. There are often remote service gateways that manage connections and credential authentication for these services. Services such as Windows Remote Management and VNC can also be used externally. Access to Valid Accounts to use the service is often a requirement, which could be obtained through credential pharming or by obtaining the credentials from users after compromising the enterprise network.

Mitigations: Limit Access to Resource Over Network, Restrict Web-Based Content, Network Segmentation, Multi-factor Authentication, Disable or Remove Feature or Program

MITRE ATT&CK reference →
Exploit Public-Facing Application T1190 Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network. The weakness in the system can be a software bug, a temporary glitch, or a misconfiguration. Exploited applications are often websites/web servers, but can also include databases (like SQL), standard services (like SMB or SSH), network device administration and management protocols (like SNMP and Smart Install), and any other system with Internet-accessible open sockets. On ESXi infrastructure, adversaries may exploit exposed OpenSLP services; they may alternatively exploit exposed VMware vCenter servers.

Mitigations: Vulnerability Scanning, Limit Access to Resource Over Network, Filter Network Traffic, Network Segmentation, Privileged Account Management, Application Isolation and Sandboxing

MITRE ATT&CK reference →
Phishing T1566 Initial Access

Adversaries may send phishing messages to gain access to victim systems. All forms of phishing are electronically delivered social engineering. Phishing can be targeted, known as spearphishing. In spearphishing, a specific individual, company, or industry will be targeted by the adversary. More generally, adversaries can conduct non-targeted phishing, such as in mass malware spam campaigns. Adversaries may send victims emails containing malicious attachments or links, typically to execute malicious code on victim systems. Phishing may also be conducted via third-party services, like social media platforms.

Mitigations: Network Intrusion Prevention, Restrict Web-Based Content, User Training, Antivirus/Antimalware, Software Configuration, Audit

MITRE ATT&CK reference →
Windows Management Instrumentation T1047 Execution

Adversaries may abuse Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to execute malicious commands and payloads. WMI is designed for programmers and is the infrastructure for management data and operations on Windows systems. WMI is an administration feature that provides a uniform environment to access Windows system components. The WMI service enables both local and remote access, though the latter is facilitated by Remote Services such as Distributed Component Object Model and Windows Remote Management. Remote WMI over DCOM operates using port 135, whereas WMI over WinRM operates over port 5985 when using HTTP and 5986 for HTTPS.

Mitigations: Execution Prevention, Behavior Prevention on Endpoint, User Account Management, Privileged Account Management

MITRE ATT&CK reference →

MITRE ATT&CK techniques attributed to Thegentlemen across its recorded activity, not a finding about how Westrop Primary & Nursery School was reached.

Vulnerabilities Thegentlemen is recorded exploiting

6 of these 6 are in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, 4 of them recorded by CISA as used in ransomware campaigns. CVEs attributed to Thegentlemen across its reported activity. There is no indication that any of these was involved in the Westrop Primary & Nursery School incident — the source data does not record an entry point.

Incident Analysis

Westrop Primary & Nursery School was targeted by Thegentlemen ransomware, one of the most active ransomware groups in our database with 926 confirmed victims globally. The attack was disclosed on October 3, 2026, when Westrop Primary & Nursery School appeared on the group's dark web leak site.

Westrop Primary & Nursery School is based in United Kingdom , operating in the Education sector. United Kingdom ranks #4 globally for ransomware attacks, with 924 victims in our database.

Sector context: Educational institutions often have under-resourced IT security teams and hold large amounts of student and faculty personal data, making them attractive targets for ransomware groups.

Thegentlemen typically employs a double extortion model: first exfiltrating sensitive data from the victim's systems, then deploying ransomware to encrypt files. Victims face two simultaneous threats — paying to restore access and paying to prevent publication of stolen data. The group's leak site publishes victim names and exfiltrated data as leverage.

Data source: This incident record is sourced from public ransomware group leak site disclosures aggregated via the ransomware.live API. Disclosure date reflects when the victim was published on the leak site, which may differ from the initial date of compromise. This platform does not publish or link to stolen data. Last data update: Oct 3, 2026 20:00 UTC.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was Westrop Primary & Nursery School attacked by ransomware?

Yes. Westrop Primary & Nursery School was listed as a victim of the Thegentlemen ransomware group on October 3, 2026. The organisation is based in United Kingdom and operates in the Education sector. The disclosure appeared on the group's dark web leak site.

Which ransomware group attacked Westrop Primary & Nursery School?

Westrop Primary & Nursery School was attacked by Thegentlemen ransomware. Thegentlemen is one of the most active ransomware groups, having claimed 926 victims globally. The group typically employs a double-extortion model: encrypting the victim's files and threatening to publish stolen data.

When did the Westrop Primary & Nursery School ransomware attack occur?

The ransomware attack on Westrop Primary & Nursery School was disclosed on October 3, 2026. This date reflects when the victim was published on the threat group's leak site, which may differ from the actual date of initial compromise.

What data was stolen in the Westrop Primary & Nursery School ransomware attack?

The specific data stolen from Westrop Primary & Nursery School has not been independently verified by this platform. Ransomware groups typically exfiltrate data before encrypting systems and use the threat of publication to pressure victims. As a Education organisation, Westrop Primary & Nursery School likely held student and faculty personal data and academic records.

How can organisations protect against Thegentlemen attacks?

To defend against Thegentlemen and similar threat actors, organisations should: maintain regular offline backups tested for restoration; implement network segmentation to limit lateral movement; deploy multi-factor authentication on all remote access; use endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools; conduct regular phishing and security awareness training; and monitor threat intelligence feeds for indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with active groups.