One of the most prolific hacking groups of 2026 has listed Alphington-headquartered heritage engineering firm the HBS Group as a victim on its darknet leak site.
The Gentlemen ransomware group published scant details about the incident in a 23 July leak post, one of more than two dozen victims listed by the hackers in a single 24-hour period.
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While very active, The Gentlemen rarely shares details of its activity in any given leak post, sharing only company information scraped from ZoomInfo and a countdown to a publication date, in this case, in slightly more than 150 hours as of the time of writing.
Cyber Daily has reached out to the HBS Group for comment but has yet to receive a reply.
Who is The Gentlemen?
Despite only emerging on the ransomware scene in September 2025, The Gentlemen has risen to the number two spot when it comes to victim count, behind only the Qilin ransomware-as-a-service operation.
Its most recent Australian victim was Royal Foods, which confirmed it was investigating a cyber incident earlier in July.
The Gentlemen group is thought to largely comprise Russian speakers and operates under a similar model to Qilin, with the hackers currently on an affiliate recruitment drive.
“We are proud to announce that The Gentlemen are becoming official partners of BreachForums. Together, we are opening the doors to one of the most advanced ransomware-as-a-service operations in the scene,” the hackers recently said.
“We are actively looking for skilled affiliates – teams, individual pentesters, and access brokers – to join our program and scale operations worldwide.”
Affiliates keep 90 per cent of any ransom paid.
Who is the HBS Group
Based in the Melbourne suburb of Alphington, the HBS Group provides a range of services in support of “sensitive heritage projects with complex engineering requirements”.
These include restoration and conservation, construction, renovation and cladding replacement.
“We provide high-quality project management and ensure that we have the right personnel managing all aspects of the works,” the company said on its website.
“We have a dedicated team of staff to liaise with consultants, client representatives and management.”
HBS Group projects include The Grace Hotel and the Central Station Clock Tower in Sydney, the Melbourne Town Hall, and the John Gorton Building and Old Parliament House in Canberra.
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