Play (also Play Ransomware or PlayCrypt) is a hacker group responsible for ransomware extortion attacks on companies and governmental institutions. The group emerged in 2022 and attacked targets in the United States,^[1] Brazil,^[2] Argentina,^[2] Germany,^[3] Belgium^[3] and Switzerland.^[4]

Security experts suspect that the group has links to Russia, since the encryption techniques used are similar to those used by other russian-linked ransomware groups such as Hive and Nokoyawa.^[5]

The name "play" comes from the ".play" file extension that the group uses to encrypt their victims' data, leaving a message containing the word "PLAY" and an email address.^[2]

In 2022, Play carried out a major attack on the Argentine judiciary of Córdoba.^[6]

In 2023, Play carried out a wave of attacks on Switzerland. At the end of March, the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung was attacked, leading to the penetration of the systems of its service provider, CH-Media.^[7] This enabled Play to extract the addresses of over 400,000 Swiss citizens living abroad who had subscribed to the official newspaper for Swiss expatriates, Schweizer Revue [de].^[8] In the same month, a Valais community fell victim.^[9] In May/June there was a massive hacker attack on an IT service provider of the Federal administration of Switzerland and confidential data, including financial data and tax information, was stolen for extortion. Various state-owned companies were affected.^[10]