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The FBI said it was aware of approximately 900 entities allegedly exploited by Play ransomware actors as of May 2025. That figure appears in a joint FBI, CISA and Australian Signals Directorate Australian Cyber Security Centre advisory updated June 4, 2025; it is not a live 2026 victim count or a publicly audited list of exactly 900 confirmed organizations. The advisory describes Play, also called Playcrypt, as a double-extortion operation that steals data before encrypting systems and threatening to publish the information.
What the “900 organizations” figure actually means
The official wording matters. The FBI reported awareness of “approximately 900 affected entities allegedly exploited” by Play actors as of May 2025. The statement records cases known to the FBI; it does not establish that precisely 900 distinct companies were independently verified, nor does it represent every Play victim worldwide.
| Point | What the advisory establishes |
|---|---|
| Current figure in the update | Approximately 900 affected entities allegedly exploited, as of May 2025. |
| Earlier baseline | Approximately 300 affected entities in the advisory published December 18, 2023. |
| Counting detail | The public advisory does not provide a deduplicated victim list or explain whether affiliates, subsidiaries or repeated reports are counted separately. |
| Geography | Play has targeted businesses and critical infrastructure in North America, South America and Europe; the 900 figure should not be read as a U.S.-only total. |
Read the updated CISA advisory and the December 2023 advisory for the agencies’ own qualification and chronology. Play has been active since approximately June 2022.
How Play ransomware attacks work
1. Initial access
The advisory describes several entry routes rather than one signature exploit. These include stolen or purchased valid accounts, exposed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and VPN services, internet-facing applications, and vulnerabilities in FortiOS and Microsoft Exchange. The 2025 update also describes exploitation of SimpleHelp remote-monitoring-and-management software.
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2. Discovery and credential theft
After entry, operators may enumerate Active Directory with AdFind, use Grixba for network and host discovery, search for security controls and unsecured credentials, and use Mimikatz or similar tools while attempting to obtain domain-administrator privileges.
3. Lateral movement and evasion
Cobalt Strike, SystemBC, PsExec, Group Policy and other administrative or dual-use tools can move the intrusion across systems. The advisory says operators may interfere with endpoint protection, remove logs and recompile the ransomware for each attack.
4. Exfiltration, encryption and pressure
Data theft precedes encryption. Files may be compressed into RAR archives and transferred with WinSCP to attacker-controlled infrastructure. On Windows, encrypted files receive a .PLAY extension. The ransom note is named ReadMe.txt and is placed in C:/Users/Public/Music/. Victims may be contacted by email or telephone, while stolen data is threatened for publication. Payment is demanded in cryptocurrency and the leak site uses Tor infrastructure.
The advisory describes AES-RSA hybrid encryption with intermittent encryption. Because the executable is recompiled for each attack, its hash can differ from previous samples. A detection program based only on known hashes is therefore fragile; behavioral, identity and network telemetry are needed as well.
What SimpleHelp has to do with the warning
SimpleHelp is a remote-monitoring-and-management platform, making it valuable to attackers because control of an RMM system can provide access to many customer environments. The update says multiple ransomware groups, including initial-access brokers linked to Play operators, exploited CVE-2024-57727 for remote code execution against many U.S.-based entities after disclosure on January 16, 2025.
This is a specific access route, not an explanation for all 900 cases. The advisory does not say every affected entity used SimpleHelp or that every Play intrusion involved this vulnerability. Contemporary reporting also identified CVE-2024-57726 and CVE-2024-57728 in the broader SimpleHelp vulnerability set, but the Play-related government update specifically highlights CVE-2024-57727. See the SecurityWeek report for that contemporary context.
Applying a vendor fix is necessary, but it does not prove that an organization was never compromised. Review authentication, process, network and RMM logs for activity before and after patching. If public exposure is operationally required, prefer VPN-only or zero-trust access, source allowlisting, MFA, separate administrator accounts and segmentation rather than leaving management interfaces broadly reachable.
Why the ESXi variant raises the stakes
The advisory describes a Play variant aimed at VMware ESXi environments. It can power off running virtual machines, enumerate VM names, alter the ESXi welcome message and encrypt files associated with virtual machines. It also uses ESXi shell commands, can create SSH tunnels with Plink and can target or exempt selected VMs through command-line options.
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A compromised hypervisor can become a failure domain for many workloads at once. Recovery planning must therefore cover the virtualization layer, management credentials, backup infrastructure and the identity systems used to administer hosts—not only individual guest servers.
Indicators and hunting priorities
Official indicators change. Use the advisory’s downloadable STIX XML and STIX JSON, with the CISA advisory page as the durable reference. Hashes should supplement, not replace, behavioral detection.
High-value behaviors to investigate
- New or unusual domain-administrator accounts, privilege changes or administrative logins from unfamiliar locations.
- PowerShell launched by unexpected parent processes, widespread PsExec or Group Policy activity, and attempts to disable security tools.
- RAR creation followed by unusual outbound traffic, or WinSCP connections from servers that do not normally transfer data externally.
- Cleared logs, sudden telemetry gaps, unexpected access to backup systems or repeated authentication failures.
- Unexpected ESXi shell commands, VM shutdowns, changed host welcome messages or new SSH tunnels.
- Windows files ending in
.PLAYor aReadMe.txtfile inC:/Users/Public/Music/.
These behaviors are not exclusive to Play; they are hunting priorities mapped to the FBI, CISA and ASD description of Play activity.
What organizations should do now
Check exposure
- Inventory every internet-facing service, including all SimpleHelp servers, agents, versions and access paths.
- Identify exposed RDP, VPN, Exchange and FortiOS systems and confirm emergency patches and vendor updates.
- Review identity logs for impossible travel, unusual geographies, newly created accounts and abnormal privileged use.
- Search endpoint and network telemetry for PowerShell, PsExec, WinRAR, WinSCP, Cobalt Strike, SystemBC or Mimikatz activity that lacks a legitimate explanation.
- Inspect ESXi logs for VM shutdowns, shell use, altered host messages and unexpected SSH connections.
Reduce the chance of a successful intrusion
- Require multifactor authentication for webmail, VPN, remote access and privileged accounts.
- Apply current operating-system, application, firmware and security-tool updates.
- Segment RMM, administrative, production, backup and virtualization networks.
- Use least privilege and time-limited or just-in-time administrative access; regularly review privileged and newly created accounts.
- Restrict unused ports and remote services, and monitor RDP, VPN and RMM activity.
- Maintain offline, segmented, encrypted and immutable backups, then test restoration when the primary identity system is unavailable.
- Use EDR, centralized logging and network monitoring that retain enough telemetry to investigate lateral movement and data theft.
If compromise is suspected
- Isolate affected hosts and remote-management infrastructure without wiping systems or destroying evidence.
- Disable or rotate compromised credentials, beginning with privileged, RMM, VPN and service accounts.
- Protect backup systems from deletion or encryption and verify that recovery copies remain accessible.
- Activate incident-response leadership, legal and privacy teams, cyber-insurance contacts and specialist forensic support.
- Report to a local FBI field office, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, or CISA’s 24/7 Operations Center. CISA lists [email protected] and 1-844-Say-CISA.
- Coordinate customer, regulator and public communications with counsel. Do not assume that paying guarantees decryption, deletion of stolen data or an end to extortion.
Help-desk and customer-service staff should have a script for suspicious extortion calls: do not confirm systems, identities, backups or incident details to an unsolicited caller, and route the call to the response team.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is the FBI’s 900 figure a current 2026 victim count?
No. It is an approximate number of entities the FBI said it knew of as allegedly exploited, measured as of May 2025 and published in the June 4, 2025 advisory update.
Does the warning say all Play victims were compromised through SimpleHelp?
No. SimpleHelp CVE-2024-57727 is one newly described access route. The advisory also lists valid accounts, exposed RDP and VPN, FortiOS and Exchange vulnerabilities.
Can a known antivirus hash reliably detect Play ransomware?
Not by itself. The advisory says Play recompiles its binary for each attack, so organizations should combine EDR behavior rules with identity, process, network, logging and backup-access monitoring.
The Bottom Line
Play remains a serious double-extortion threat, but “900 organizations hit” is shorthand for an official, historical estimate of approximately 900 allegedly exploited entities known to the FBI by May 2025. The practical response is broader than patching SimpleHelp: reduce exposed remote access, enforce strong identity controls, segment critical systems, protect tested backups and investigate signs of earlier compromise.
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