Dragon Capital's purchase of Ukrainska Pravda, reported on 26 May 2021
A look back at the acquisition of a Ukrainian news site by an investment company, and at a separate ransomware disclosure from the days before.
What did the Ukrainian media and investment landscape look like on 27 May 2021? One development stood out: the day before, on 26 May 2021, the investment company Dragon Capital was reported to have acquired the Ukrainian online outlet Ukrainska Pravda.
The reports covered the purchase itself: an investment firm taking ownership of a well-known Ukrainian internet publication. They did not set out a price or any plans for the outlet, and nothing further can be said here about terms.
A separate corporate story abroad
Another business story circulated in the preceding days. On 21 May 2021, CNA Financial, described as the seventh-largest commercial insurer in the United States, revealed that it had been hit by a ransomware attack in March 2021. The company had paid $40 million to a group named Phoenix two weeks after company data was stolen and its officials were locked out of their network.
The attackers used malware called Phoenix Locker, a variant of ransomware known as Hades. Cybersecurity experts said Hades was created by a Russian cybercrime syndicate known as Evil Corp. In December 2019, the US Treasury Department had announced sanctions on 17 individuals and six entities linked to Evil Corp, making it illegal for a US company to knowingly pay a ransom to that group.
