Dragon Capital's purchase of Ukrainska Pravda and a US insurer's ransom
A look back at two economy-related reports from late May 2021: an investment firm buying a Ukrainian news site, and a disclosed $40 million ransomware payment.
What did the business news look like on 27 May 2021? Two reports from the days around that date stand out.
On 26 May 2021, it was reported that the investment company Dragon Capital had acquired the Ukrainian internet publication Ukrainska Pravda. The reports gave no further terms of the deal.
Five days earlier, on 21 May 2021, CNA Financial, the seventh-largest commercial insurer in the United States, disclosed that it had been the target of a ransomware attack in March 2021. The company said it paid $40 million to a group called Phoenix two weeks after company data was stolen and its officials were locked out of the network.
The attackers used malware called Phoenix Locker, a variant of the ransomware known as Hades. According to cybersecurity experts, Hades was created by a Russian cybercrime syndicate known as Evil Corp.
In December 2019, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions on 17 individuals and six entities linked to Evil Corp. That designation made it illegal for a US company to knowingly pay a ransom to Evil Corp.
