A U.S. government entity appears to have paid about $1 million to stop Kairos from leaking stolen files, based on a leaked negotiation and blockchain tracing. The case suggests Kairos may not be a traditional ransomware gang at all, but a pure data-theft extortion crew targeting sensitive county records. #Kairos #UnionCountyOhio #RakeshKrishnan
Keypoints
- Kairos allegedly extorted Union County, Ohio with stolen data rather than file encryption.
- The county reportedly paid about 9.44 BTC, worth nearly $1 million, to prevent the leak.
- The stolen records included Social Security numbers, financial data, fingerprints, and passport numbers.
- Krishnan traced the payment through wallets linked to Bybit, OKX, and BELQI.
- The case shows that many extortion groups now rely on data theft and leak threats instead of encryption.
Read More: https://thehackernews.com/2026/07/us-government-entity-paid-kairos-group.html