Yellow Pages Listed by Black Basta Ransomware Group

On April 23, 2023, Canadian directory company Yellow Pages appeared on the leak site operated by the Black Basta ransomware group. The listing states that internal files were exfiltrated during a ransomware attack. The company has not publicly quantified how many customer or employee records may be affected, and the leak-site posting does not detail the volume or specific categories of data taken.

Primary Disclosure Details

The Black Basta leak site listing, still accessible via the .onion address tracked by ransomware.live, claims that Yellow Pages data was stolen and will be published unless a ransom is paid. The disclosure indicates that the threat actors obtained internal files but provides no breakdown of record counts, types of documents, or whether customer contact information, business listings, or employee records were included. Yellow Pages itself has not issued a detailed public breach notification specifying the scope, leaving affected individuals without confirmed information on what exactly was taken.

April 23, 2023 marks the first public appearance of the listing. As of the posting date, the group followed its standard practice of giving the victim a short window to negotiate before threatening full data release.

Why This Matters for You and Your Family

If your name, address, phone number, or email appears in any Yellow Pages directory or related service, this incident likely touches your household. Directory companies aggregate exactly the kind of contact data that fuels spam, phishing, and identity theft. Even without an exact count of affected records, the exposure of internal files means information that was once scattered across public listings may now sit in a single, easily searchable archive controlled by criminals. For families, that raises the risk of coordinated scams targeting home addresses, children’s names, or small business details listed in the directories.

Doxxing and Identity-Chain Risks

Directory data is rarely isolated. A single leaked record can link your phone number to your home address, spouse’s name, and any businesses you operate or advertise. Threat actors routinely combine such information with credential leaks from other breaches to build detailed profiles. These chains often extend to social-media handles, gaming accounts, and family email addresses. Once mapped, the information can be used for doxxing, SIM-swapping, or targeted extortion. Credential leaks like this one frequently cascade into account takeovers, including gaming platforms used by children that share the same email or password patterns as adult accounts.

Black Basta’s Known Track Record

Public reporting attributes the emergence of Black Basta to early 2022. The group rapidly gained notoriety for double-extortion attacks that combine ransomware encryption with data theft and public shaming. Notable prior victims include large corporations in healthcare, manufacturing, and professional services sectors. Their typical playbook begins with initial access gained through phishing, remote-desktop compromise, or stolen credentials, followed by rapid exfiltration of internal files before deploying ransomware. They then list victims on their leak site with countdown timers, releasing samples or full datasets if payment is not received. The exact tactics used against Yellow Pages remain undisclosed, but the group’s consistent pattern suggests opportunistic entry followed by bulk data theft.

What to do

• Run a DoxxScan to map every link between your handles, emails, phone numbers, and real identity, including any Yellow Pages listings that now sit in attacker hands.
• Rotate passwords used on any Yellow Pages-related accounts or directories anywhere they are reused, and switch to 2FA through an authenticator app rather than SMS.
• Enable continuous DoxxScan monitoring across 13.1B+ breach records and 100+ platforms so the next exposure of your data is caught in hours, not months.
• Cover the household with DoxxScan family protection that extends to dependents and children’s gaming accounts vulnerable to the same credential chains.
• Let remediation specialists handle takedown requests for any resold or reposted Yellow Pages data appearing on broker sites and forums.

The incident underscores how even familiar local-service companies can become gateways to long-term identity exposure when ransomware groups strike. Staying ahead requires more than one-time checks. DoxxScan by GalaxyWarden delivers continuous monitoring across 13.1 billion+ breach records and over 100 platforms, AI-powered identity-chain mapping, hands-on remediation by specialists, and full household coverage that includes children’s gaming accounts. Start your DoxxScan trial today to close the gaps this claimed breach and future ones can exploit.