Photo: Colonial Pipeline
Colonial Pipeline has paid no less than $5 million in ransom to a group of hackers after a cyberattack crippled its network and caused a massive gas crisis in the United States.
With several industries under pressure due to the gas shortage, including airlines forced to add a refueling stop for long flights, Colonial eventually decided to pay the ransom despite previous reports that the company had no intention of paying an extortion fee.
But sources familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg claim the ransom has been paid “within hours after the attack.” Colonial is said to have used an undisclosed cryptocurrency that’s almost impossible to track, so the identity of the hackers is therefore protected.
However, U.S. authorities believe the hackers, which are part of a group called DarkSide, are located in either Russia or Eastern Europe. For now, no public evidence in this regard has been offered, though.
Colonial paid the ransom and received in exchange a decryption key that allowed the company to unlock files locked by the ransomware that infiltrated its network. However, according to the cited source, the provided tool and the decrypting process were so slow that Colonial continued its own efforts to restore the affected systems using backups.
No company representative or U.S. official confirmed Colonial paid the ransom, but on the other hand, all previous reports indicated there was no initial intention of embracing this approach.
Earlier today, however, Colonial confirmed it started to resume fuel shipments, though the gas crisis is far from over in the United States. Panic buying has become a real thing these days, with most gas stations left dry in plenty of regions, especially in the first days after the attack.
The hackers who compromised Colonial’s network have explained in a statement that their intention wasn’t to create problems for society but actually to make money.
But sources familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg claim the ransom has been paid “within hours after the attack.” Colonial is said to have used an undisclosed cryptocurrency that’s almost impossible to track, so the identity of the hackers is therefore protected.
However, U.S. authorities believe the hackers, which are part of a group called DarkSide, are located in either Russia or Eastern Europe. For now, no public evidence in this regard has been offered, though.
Colonial paid the ransom and received in exchange a decryption key that allowed the company to unlock files locked by the ransomware that infiltrated its network. However, according to the cited source, the provided tool and the decrypting process were so slow that Colonial continued its own efforts to restore the affected systems using backups.
No company representative or U.S. official confirmed Colonial paid the ransom, but on the other hand, all previous reports indicated there was no initial intention of embracing this approach.
Earlier today, however, Colonial confirmed it started to resume fuel shipments, though the gas crisis is far from over in the United States. Panic buying has become a real thing these days, with most gas stations left dry in plenty of regions, especially in the first days after the attack.
The hackers who compromised Colonial’s network have explained in a statement that their intention wasn’t to create problems for society but actually to make money.
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