TLDR Tech / InfoSec
County Government Reportedly Paid $1 Million to Cyber Extortion Group
A US local government paid the Kairos extortion group $1 million in Bitcoin after a May 2025 breach where attackers claimed to steal over 2 TB of data via brute-force access. Negotiations moved from a $3 million demand to the final payment under deadline pressure. The victim is described as a small county, likely Union County, Ohio, which later notified 45,487 people of exposed IDs, financial data, biometrics, and medical details.
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