First Baptist Church Listed by blacklock Ransomware Group: Ransomware Claim — What’s Alleged & What To Do

Ransomware groups continue to target organisations of every size, including small community institutions that hold personal and operational records. In this climate, even a listing on a criminal leak site can signal real risk for staff, members and anyone whose details sit in church systems. On 14 December 2024, First Baptist Church of High Springs, Florida, appeared among victims claimed by the blacklock ransomware group.

Public detail remains limited: the number of people affected is unknown, and the precise contents of any stolen material have not been independently confirmed. What is known is that the group asserts it exfiltrated internal files during a ransomware attack. For a small congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, that claim alone is enough to warrant careful attention from anyone connected to the church.

What happened

According to available reporting, First Baptist Church was listed by the blacklock ransomware group on or around 14 December 2024. The listing describes the organisation as a Florida-based entity with fewer than 25 employees and annual revenue under $5 million. The group claims that internal files were exfiltrated as part of a ransomware attack. No further technical details—such as the initial access method, the exact date of intrusion, the volume of data taken, or whether encryption was also deployed—have been publicly disclosed. The number of individuals whose information may have been involved remains unknown. Independent verification of the group’s claims has not been reported.

Who is blacklock?

Blacklock is a ransomware operation that has appeared in public threat reporting as a group that both encrypts systems and steals data before demanding payment. Like many contemporary ransomware crews, it maintains a leak site on which it names organisations it claims to have compromised and, in some cases, posts samples or full archives of stolen material if a ransom is not paid. The group typically operates under a ransomware-as-a-service model, recruiting affiliates who carry out intrusions and share proceeds. Its public listings function as both pressure tactics and advertising for its services. Because blacklock’s statements are self-interested claims rather than verified disclosures, any assertion that a particular organisation was breached must be treated as unconfirmed until corroborated by the victim or independent investigators. In this instance, the group’s listing of First Baptist Church constitutes such a claim; no additional statements specific to this victim beyond the general assertion of internal-file exfiltration have been made public.

Who is First Baptist Church?

First Baptist Church of High Springs is a small Baptist congregation in Florida that maintains an affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention. Organisations of this type typically serve local communities through worship services, pastoral care, educational programmes and charitable activities. They commonly maintain records of members, donors, staff, volunteers and, in some cases, counselling or outreach participants. Even a church with fewer than 25 employees can hold sensitive personal data—names, contact details, financial contribution histories, employment information and notes related to pastoral care. A breach affecting such an institution is consequential because the data often concerns people who trust the church with private aspects of their lives, and because small nonprofits frequently lack the dedicated security resources of larger enterprises. The listing therefore raises legitimate questions for anyone whose information may reside in the church’s systems.

What was likely exposed

The only data type named in connection with the incident is “internal files” said to have been exfiltrated. No inventory of those files, no confirmation of specific categories such as membership lists, financial records or personnel files, and no count of affected individuals have been released. Organisations of this kind typically store membership directories, donation and payroll records, email correspondence, volunteer rosters and administrative documents. Whether any of those categories were among the material blacklock claims to have taken remains unconfirmed. Readers should therefore treat the exact contents of the alleged theft as unknown rather than assume particular data types were compromised.

The real-world impact

If internal files were indeed stolen, the practical risks include identity theft, targeted phishing, financial fraud and unwanted contact. Members or donors whose names and addresses appear in church records could receive convincing scam messages that reference the congregation. Staff or volunteers whose employment or contact details were held could face credential-stuffing attempts or social-engineering calls. For the church itself, the consequences may include operational disruption, reputational harm, the cost of incident response and potential regulatory or insurance obligations, even if the organisation is small. Because the scale of any exposure is unknown, the prudent assumption is that anyone who has interacted with First Baptist Church of High Springs in an administrative capacity should remain alert to unusual communications and monitor financial accounts for irregularities.

What to do if you're exposed

If you have reason to believe your information may have been held by the church, begin by watching for unexpected emails, texts or calls that reference the congregation or request personal details or payments. Enable multi-factor authentication on important accounts, change passwords that may have been reused, and review bank and credit-card statements for unauthorised activity. Consider placing a fraud alert with the major credit bureaus if you are concerned about identity theft. You can also run a free exposure scan of your email address to check whether it has already appeared in known breach data sets; such a check provides an additional, independent signal of whether your details are circulating. Finally, treat any communication that claims to come from the church or from blacklock with caution, and verify it through official channels before responding.

AICompiled with AI assistance from public sources and published under our editorial standards.