US' Colonial Pipeline paid $5 mn ransom to hackers
The hacking that had been carried out by a criminal cybergroup known as DarkSide, forced the US’ Colonial Pipeline to shut down approximately 5,500 miles of pipeline, leading to a disruption of nearly half of the East Coast fuel supply and causing gasoline shortages in the Southeast.
Colonial, which operates the country’s largest fuel pipeline, announced it had been hacked Friday, and shut down all four of its major pipelines that serve the Eastern and Southeastern United States as a precaution.
Gas prices rose, and some stations ran out of fuel. The Department of Transportation issued an emergency order allowing truckers driving fuel in affected states to work longer hours than federal regulations normally allow.
However, the federal government was saying , we discourage the payment of ransoms, because the prolific payment of ransoms encourages ransomware. The hackers, known as DarkSide, are one of a number of ransomware groups that hold organizations’ files hostage and demand a payment, either by locking their files and making them unusable or threatening to release them to the public.
Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid 5 million dollars to the hackers following a cyberattack that forced the company to take its fuel pipeline offline. The ransom was paid in untraceable cryptocurrency within hours after the attack. The company resumed fuel shipments on Wednesday.
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