Hacker offering US engineering firm data online after alleged breach
Data relating to Tampa Electric Company, Duke Energy Florida, and American Electric Power was allegedly stolen
A cyber criminal is claiming to have seized data from Florida-based engineering firm Pickett and Associates relating to three US utilities.
Pickett provides transmission and distribution power line design, aerial surveying, and LiDAR services to major utilities and mining firms across the US and the Caribbean.
The hacker in question is now offering around 139 GB of engineering data - 892 files - about Tampa Electric Company, Duke Energy Florida, and American Electric Power on a dark web forum.
There's an asking price of 6.5 bitcoin, or a little under $600,000.
The data is claimed to include more than 800 classified raw LiDAR point cloud files in .las format, ranging from 100 MB to 2 GB in size, along with full coverage of transmission line corridors and substations, including layers for bare earth, vegetation, conductors, and structure.
Also apparently up for sale are high-resolution orthophotos in .ecw format, microStation design files and PTC settings, large vegetation feature files in .xyz format and preserved folder structures from active projects.
"This dataset contains real, operational engineering data from active projects of major utilities and is suitable for infrastructure analysis, modelling, risk assessment of specialized research," the hacker said.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2026 report - the leading resource for IT decision-maker insight on priorities and investment areas in AI, security and more.
Tampa Electric Company has around 860,000 business and residential customers in West Central Florida, while Duke Energy Florida has about two million. American Electric Power, meanwhile, boasts nearly 5.6 million customers across 11 states.
ITPro approached Pickett and Associates for comment, but did not receive a response by time of publication.
German solar company data up for grabs
The same criminal is also offering what's claimed to be an internal database belonging to Hamburg, Germany-based solar energy firm Enerparc AG. The data is claimed to include information about solar projects in Spain’s Mallorca and Alicante regions.
According to research from Sophos, 67% of energy, oil or gas and utilities firms suffered a ransomware attack in 2024, up from 55% in 2020.
This time last year, TrustWave said that ransomware attacks targeting the energy and utilities sectors rose by 80% in 2024.
Energy firms are frequently targeted by hacktivists and nation state actors including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, with China's Volt Typhoon hitting a number of power utilities in 2023.
All in all, US critical infrastructure operators reported almost 4,900 cybersecurity threats in 2024.
Critical industries in the crosshairs
According to recent research from security firm Kela, global ransomware attacks against critical industries rose by 34% in 2025.
The US was the most-affected country, accounting for 21% of global incidents, followed by Canada, Germany, the UK, and Italy.
"In critical industries, such disruptions can have national-level consequences, undermining essential operations and eroding public trust," commented Lin Levi, Kela threat intelligence team lead.
"To protect critical services, governments and critical industry sectors must prioritize proactive preventative measures and maintain continuous real-time monitoring to detect and respond to cyber threats."
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Make sure to follow ITPro on Google News to keep tabs on all our latest news, analysis, and reviews.
You can also follow ITPro on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and BlueSky.
Emma Woollacott is a freelance journalist writing for publications including the BBC, Private Eye, Forbes, Raconteur and specialist technology titles.
-
Red Hat eyes automated cloud management gains with OpenShift 5 releaseNews New AI automation features aim to bolster hybrid cloud management for Red Hat customers
-
SonicWall issues fixes for seven vulnerabilitiesNews The vulnerability, which appears to have been exploited in the wild, comes alongside six others
-
320,000 school files published on dark web after attack on education platformNews Data from dozens of schools has been accessed after an attack on the Trading with Schools platform
-
‘Cyber criminal groups suffer from the same security weaknesses they routinely exploit’: ShinyHunters claims it hacked Clop ransomware rivalNews An attack on the cyber crime gang could prove dangerous for previous victims of data leaks, experts have warned
-
Companies are still paying ransoms to cyber criminals despite official adviceNews A Proofpoint survey found evolving ransomware techniques and the use of AI is exacerbating the situation for victims
-
This one cyber crime group accounted for nearly a fifth of all ransomware attacks in JuneNews The Gentlemen, a ransomware a service operator, now accounts for 17% of published attacks
-
Working with the enemy: Ransomware negotiator-turned cyber criminal jailed after working with hackers to extort clientsNews Angelo Martino was supposed to be negotiating on behalf of victims, but was secretly working for ransomware operators
-
Hackers are posing as Interpol to target small businesses – here's what you need to knowNews Small businesses are warned to think twice before clicking on links
-
‘Every hour ransomware goes undetected drastically increases its potential blast radius’: Hackers are breaching networks and laying low for longer – and nearly half of firms don’t realize until data is stolenNews An ExtraHop survey found more intrusions are going undetected, leading to longer dwell times
-
Ransomware cartels are fragmenting into volatile splinter groups, warns Met Police cyber chiefNews Commoditized "cyber crime bazaars" and AI data mining are forcing law enforcement to rewrite its playbook