Announced via the Justice Department on Monday, investigators in the US have managed to retrieve millions in cryptocurrency paid hackers whose strike resulted in closing the key East Coast pipeline the previous month.
The recent statement verifies the earlier report provided by CNN regarding the FBI investigation. The investigation was performed in cooperation with the company that had fallen victor to the ransomware attack headlined, Colonia Pipeline.
The Justice Department disclosed that it managed to recover nearly $2.3 million worth of Bitcoins paid to the group members of hacking gang DarkSide as ransom. The FBI shared that it has been keeping close inspection on DarkSide, the group that is said to have been passing over its malware programs to other hackers for more than a year.
The retrieval of the ransom, the first confiscation at the hands of the recently formed DOJ digital extortion task force, happens to be an unusual result for a corporation that has become a target of devastating cyber-attack in the currently prevalent industry of ransomware.
Joseph Blout, Chief Executive Officer of Colonial Pipeline Corporation informed the Wall Street Journal that the corporation was forced to comply with the $4.4 million demanded ransom because officials were not aware of how much damage the hackers had caused as well as the time it would take to recover from that damage.
The company had, however, secretly attempted to inform the FBI and assist inspectors in tracking the payment to a crypto wallet being used by the hackers, who were discovered to be Russians.
It was previously reported by CNN that US authorities were in the search for any possible weak spots in the hackers’ personal or operational security to determine the actors involved. According to one of the insider sources, they specifically monitored for possible leads that might guide them towards where they transfer all the money.
