The U.S. won a "rare victory": recovering about $2.3 million in ransoms from payment hackers

The Paper's reporter Nan Boyi

In May, Colonial Pipeline, a major U.S. pipeline operator, was attacked and a ransom of 75 bitcoins (then worth $4.4 million, or about 28.14 million yuan) was paid to hackers. On June 7, local time, the U.S. Department of Justice said it had recovered the ransom.

According to the Associated Press reported on the 7th, LISA Monaco, deputy secretary of justice of the United States, said that investigators recovered 63.7 bitcoins paid by the Colonil Pipeline Transportation Company, accounting for about 85% of the total amount paid. Due to the fall in the price of bitcoin, it is currently worth about $2.3 million (about 14.71 million yuan). Monaco said at a press conference, "We will continue to use all our resources to increase research on defending against ransomware attacks." ”

According to Xinhua News Agency, in May this year, the Colonial pipeline transportation company was attacked by ransomware. The FBI investigation found that the ransomware attack was launched by a cybercrime gang called DarkSide. The "Dark Side" hacked into the Network of The Colonial Pipeline Transport Company and obtained a large amount of data and threatened to pay the ransom. The Associated Press reported that this was the worst cyberattack on critical infrastructure in the United States to date. According to statistics, in the past three years, the "dark side" has launched multiple cyberattacks, causing tens of billions of dollars in damage.

Paul Abbate, deputy director of the FBI, said the ransomware used by the "Dark Side" had been one of the targets of law enforcement since last year, and at least 90 U.S. companies were victims of the gang. Colonial Pipeline Transportation has since thanked the FBI and said it would hold hackers accountable, take cyber threats seriously, and invest accordingly to strengthen defenses.

The Associated Press reported that the operation was the first since the U.S. Department of Justice created a task force dedicated to dealing with ransomware, which also reflected the rare victory of the U.S. government in dealing with ransomware threats.

Editor-in-Charge: Wang Xinran

Proofreader: Shi Gong