Ohio County Paid $1 Million to Kairos to Stave Off Data Leak
A small Ohio county (Union County) paid $1 million in Bitcoin to the Kairos extortion group to stop a leak of 2 TB of personal data stolen in a May 2025 breach. The attackers never encrypted files but used proof‑of‑access threats, forcing the county to raise its offer from $100 k to $1 million. The case shows how data‑theft extortion can cripple local governments.