Colonial Pipeline pays $5 million ransom to hackers [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Colonial Pipeline gave $5 million ransom payment to the cyberattackers.
• President Joe Biden was mum if he knew about the given ransom.
• The company said that it would resume fuel shipments by Wednesday.

In an opposing turn of event following the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline Co. last week, two people with knowledge about the issue confirmed that the US pipeline operator paid almost $5 million to ‘DarkSide’ hackers.

Initial reports from news outlets such as Reuters and the Washington Post said that the company was not leaning on giving immediate blackmail money.

The pipeline company was forced to pay ransom within hours following the infiltration, and US officials were notified about the payment, per a third source familiar with the matter.

After receiving the ransom, the hackers gave a decrypting tool to the operator to restart the deactivated computer network, but it was slow that Colonial had to manually sustain its own backups to revive the system, according to one of the sources familiar with the incident.

During his interview with Bloomberg News, President Joe Biden was asked if he knew about the ransom payment that was made.

“I have no comment on that,” he said, as he paused before answering the question.

According to the FBI, the hackers, who have identified themselves as the “DarkSide,” came from either Russia or Eastern Europe. They boast of having an expertise in digital extortion.

The FBI does not advise of paying ransom to cyberattacks since there would be no assurance that they would stick with their promise to give back stolen files. The agency also suggests that it would promote the motives of other hacker-wannabes.

In a press briefing with the media on Monday, White House’s cybersecurity expert Anne Neuberger did not provide a direct answer if companies should pay a ransom.

“We recognize, though, that companies are often in a difficult position if their data is encrypted and they do not have backups and cannot recover the data,” she said.

However, for CEO and founder of digital forensics firm LIFARS and former Loews Corp. cyber expert Ondrej Krehel, Colonial Pipeline had no choice.

“They had to pay,” he said. “This is a cyber cancer. You want to die or you want to live? It’s not a situation where you can wait.”

Krehel even noted that a $5 million ransom was “very low” for a pipeline company.

Being the biggest fuel pipeline in the country, Colonial caters to the majority of the East Coast.

The ransomware attack struck the company last Friday, resulting in the pipeline system shutdown. Early this week, people lined up at gas stations across several states in panic mode to secure fuel amid the scarcity of supplies.

The pipeline operator announced that it would restart fuel shipments on Wednesday, around 5 pm Eastern time. A spokesperson for the company declined to provide a comment.

Source: Yahoo News