Scientology ransomware data breach: Alex Barnes-Ross on how bad it really is

As a former Scientology London staffer and with his annual protests of the IAS gala at Scientology’s UK headquarters, Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, England, Alex Barnes-Ross is uniquely positioned to judge the severity of the ransomware data breach of Saint Hill that emerged this week. He’s had a chance to digest the information that was leaked, and offers us these thoughts…

The potential impact this will have on the Church of Scientology here in the UK cannot be underestimated. Although the number of documents we’ve seen so far is limited, they represent a significant and major breach of Scientology’s systems, and it’s clear the hack went deep.

One of the documents is a Knowledge Report — what Scientologists write about each other as part of their internal snitching culture. Although the KR we’ve seen isn’t hugely implicating, it does suggest the hackers have gotten hold of the Ethics filing system, and that’s potentially huge. Scientology holds personal information about every single one of its parishioners, and this KR mentions an “Out-2D” situation (or somebody cheating on their partner, in normal English). Ethics files, and particularly KRs, will hold mountains of incriminating information and demonstrates how involved the Church is in its members’ lives. If there are any incidents of criminality, rapes, child sexual abuse etc., these will all be documented in excruciating detail in Knowledge Reports. If the hackers choose to release more of these, it will almost certainly have major consequences for the Church.

We’ve also been given the financial planning spreadsheets for the IAS events in 2024 and 2025. A couple of things stood out for me here. First, we now know that Scientology paid Deadline, the security company who are hired exclusively to man the front gates and handle us protestors, £29,217 in 2024 and £25,113 in 2025 for their services. On top of that, there’s a budget for security cars, accommodation, food and other related expenses.

They also spent £74,326 in 2024 and £32,260 in 2025 on close protection officers. The only executive in Scientology who gets close protection is David Miscavige himself, so we now know exactly how much his security costs for the one week he is in the UK for the IAS event.

The spreadsheet also separates expenses incurred by CSI and COSRECI. CSI is Church of Scientology International, the US-based “mother church,” which officially does not have any presence in the UK. They are not registered as an overseas entity that trades in the UK, and this evidences that they are indeed engaging in business activities here — something HM Revenue & Customs will certainly be interested in. COSRECI is the Church of Scientology Religious Education College Inc., their Australian-registered entity through which all UK activities are funneled. On paper, COSRECI is entirely independent of CSI and this document proves the two are inextricably linked — and again, something that has not been declared on Scientology’s business filings here in the UK.

Perhaps most entertaining is the line item called “Perimeter/Gate handlings”, which amounted to £4,700 in 2024 and £2,500 in 2025. The document describes this as “construction of screens and bushes hire/purchase for main gate.” These are the illegal obstructions Scientology placed by the entrance to Saint Hill in order to interfere with us protestors — and which the Highways Authority ordered were removed.

There was also £1,100 allocated in 2024 specifically for “fence mesh” at the Stables entrance. This is undoubtedly in response to us protestors gathering there in 2023 with our signs and chanting during the opening of the new Qual building. I noted at the time how bizarre it was that there was a clear line of sight from the main road to the opening ceremony, and similarly how we could see straight into the field where Tom Cruise landed his helicopter at this year’s event.

The spreadsheet includes £480 in both years for a dog search of Saint Hill Manor “before visit.” There would be no reason to search the Manor, which stands as a shrine to L. Ron Hubbard for most of the year and open only for pre-booked tours, other than if Miscavige or Tom Cruise were staying there. Considering that Miscavige likes to stay elusive, and his name is forbidden from appearing on documents like this, the ambiguity is an indicator of something we suspected, but haven’t been able to prove: Miscavige stays in the Manor during the IAS event.

The most incriminating document so far is one titled “Estimated Purchase Order: Completed Staff Work, Visa Costs.” In the UK, Scientology have the ability to sponsor Religious Worker visas. Last year, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Home Office which revealed in 2023, the first year Scientology were given the ability to issue such visas, 21 “Minister of Religion” and “Religious Worker” visas were granted. However, UK visa rules require foreign workers to be paid at least the minimum wage and their accounts for that year did not show the £455,000 increase in staff wages they should have if they were complying with this rule. “Minister of Religion” visas require workers to be engaging in pastoral work — and not administrative or sales-type jobs. This means, under Scientology’s argument that auditing is a form of religious worship, that only auditors are eligible for this type of visa. The earlier financial spreadsheet mentions OSA EU staff arriving in the UK in order to work in security roles — which is not, in my opinion, “administering religion.”

The Visa Costs document also evidences that a number of staff members were working at Saint Hill without the correct visas — meaning Scientology have now been proven to have engaged in visa fraud.

There is also a document asking for money to fund promotional activities, which in itself doesn’t sound all too exciting, but the numbers tell us a lot. For example, £5,000 was requested for a mailer to go out to 4,000 people “promoting the holiday season” and £16,000 is designated towards sending out Christmas cards to 12,000 parishioners. For a Church that claims to have millions of members worldwide, and “hundreds of thousands” in the UK, I would have expected more than 12,000 people to be on the list to receive a Christmas card from the biggest Org in the country.

Overall, these documents are clearly just the tip of the iceberg and it’ll be very interesting to see what else gets published by the hackers. This is, of course, also a significant data breach — which the Church must, under data protection laws, report to the Information Commissioners’ Office and for which there almost certainly will be a fine. GDPR fines have two tiers: £17.5 million or 4 percent of annual global turnover (whichever is greater) for serious breaches, and a standard £8.7 million or 2 percent of global turnover for “administrative or other less severe infringements.”

I do not in any way support cyber-hacking or this Russian criminal ransomware group. But I do believe there is a clear public interest in the documents they have obtained, and will be watching this closely to see what information becomes available. Nonetheless, this is already damaging for the Church and has the potential to severely impact their UK operations from a legal standpoint.

— Alex Barnes-Ross

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Danny Masterson’s habeas petition is resubmitted

Initially rejected for being too long, Danny Masterson’s habeas corpus petition was resubmitted this week by his habeas attorney, Eric Multhaus.

As TX Lawyer explained to us, Masterson’s direct appeal is about what took place during the trial that put him in prison for 30 years to life. But a habeas petition is about what did not get into the trial, such as defense witnesses (mostly Scientologists like Luke Watson) who were never called to testify by defense attorney Philip Cohen.

Read TX Lawyer’s assessment of the habeas petition and the direct appeal here.

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Claire Headley joins Patty and Phil on Group Therapy!

Today subscribers will receive Episode 146 of our special podcast series, “Group Therapy.”

We discuss the week’s revelations with our gang of jokers and degraders, including Claire Headley, Patty Moher and Phil Jones!

It’s all the enturbulation you could want!

We’re offering this series as thanks to our subscribers for helping to support the work we do here at the Underground Bunker.

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

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Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

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