United States has retrieved a total of $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom paid to hackers by Colonial Pipeline Co.
Gatekeepers News reports that the U.S Justice Department on Monday announced that 63.7 cryptocurrency valued at about $2.3 million were retrieved in Bitcoins from a hacking group called DarkSide.
The hackers had shut down the key East Coast pipeline last month (May) which led to shortages at gas stations, hike in prices and panic buying. Colonial Pipeline paid almost $5 million to regain access.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said investigators “found and recaptured the majority” of the ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is in possession of a private key to unlock a bitcoin wallet that had received most of the funds.
It was gathered that a judge in San Francisco approved the seizure of funds from this “cryptocurrency address,” which the filing said was located in the Northern District of California.
Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate, who spoke at the same news conference on Monday, said DarkSide is a Russia-based cybercrime group. He said DarkSide has victimized about 90 U.S companies, including manufacturers and healthcare providers.
Abbate noted that the FBI is tracking more than 100 ransomware variants.
Colonial Pipeline Co. CEO, Joseph Blount, in a statement explained that “when Colonial was attacked on May 7, we quietly and quickly contacted the local FBI field offices in Atlanta and San Francisco, and prosecutors in Northern California and Washington D.C. to share with them what we knew at that time.
“The Department of Justice and FBI were instrumental in helping us to understand the threat actor and their tactics. Their efforts to hold these criminals accountable and bring them to justice are commendable,” Blount added.
