July 5, 2026
- A U.S. government entity paid ~$1M to "Kairos" in a pure data-extortion case. Ransom-ISAC reconstructed the negotiation from leaked chat logs and blockchain tracing; notably, no encryptor or locker binary has ever been linked to Kairos — just stolen data, deadlines, and an unverifiable deletion promise. The Hacker News · Jul 5 · observed · Threat Activity