Justice Dept. Claws Back $2.3M Paid by Colonial Pipeline to Ransomware Gang
Justice Dept. Claws Back $2.3M Paid by Colonial Pipeline to Ransomware Gang:
The U.S. Departmentof Justice said today it has recovered $2.3 million worth of Bitcoin that Colonial Pipeline paid to ransomware extortionists last month. The funds had been sent to DarkSide, a ransomware-as-a-service syndicate that disbanded after a May 14 farewell message to affiliates saying its Internet servers and cryptocurrency stash were seized by unknown law enforcement entities.
On May 7, the DarkSide ransomware gang sprang its attack against Colonial, which ultimately paid 75 Bitcoin (~$4.4 million) to its tormentors. The company said the attackers only hit its business IT networks — not its pipeline security and safety systems — but that it shut the pipeline down anyway as a precaution [several publications noted Colonial shut down its pipeline because its billing system was impacted, and it had no way to get paid].
On or around May 14, the DarkSide representative on several Russian-language cybercrime forums posted a message saying the group was calling it quits.
"Servers were seized, money of advertisers and founders was transferred to an unknown account," read the farewell message. "Hosting support, apart from information 'at the request of law enforcement agencies,' does not provide any other information."
US Has Recovered Ransom Payment Made After Pipeline Hack - Times of India
US has recovered ransom payment made after pipeline hack - Times of India:
WASHINGTON: The Justice Department has recovered the majority of a multimillion-dollar ransom payment to hackers after a cyberattack that caused the operator of the nation's largest fuel pipeline to halt its operations last month, officials said Monday. The operation to recover the cryptocurrency from the Russia-based hacker group is the first undertaken by a specialized ransomware task force created by the Justice Department, and reflects what US officials say is an increasingly aggressive approach to deal with a ransomware threat that in the last month has targeted critical industries around the world. "By going after an entire ecosystem that fuels ransomware and digital currency, we will continue to use all of our tools and all of our resources to increase the costs and the consequences of ransomware attacks and other cyber-enabled attacks," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Monday at a news conference announcing the operation.
Also at Washington Post, Threatpost
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @05:23PM (4 children)
Steal the money away from the cybercriminals to make their efforts a complete waste of time. Even better to sick them on each other if it was at all possible.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @06:52PM (2 children)
Actually, I think much more effective would be to do the Mossad thing. [wikipedia.org] Have a few of these jokers turn up dead in various parts of the world. Make it clear that they can be reached just about anywhere they run to hide. You don't just want them thinking this is a "waste of time". You want them scared enough to shit their pants anytime another of their comrades ends up in the news as the latest casualty.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday June 08 2021, @08:31PM (1 child)
Yep, extrajudicial killings are great! It's one of those things we all just really LOVE about Israel!
Good times!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 09 2021, @02:39AM
Perhaps you hadn't heard but the Biden Administration now considers these actions as terrorism which means that it is entirely legal to hunt them down like rabid dogs. Of course, the perpetrators could turn themselves in to face a US military tribunal under the UCMJ. But then, I'm pretty sure that Putin and his henchmen would frown on that sort of thing. And let's just be real: Putin and his goons would be far less gentle about taking vengeance for turning on Mother Russia. I'm guessing that the lives of wives, children, father, mother, brothers, and sisters would all be on the line. Any way you look at it, they are screwed.
(Score: 2) by Anti-aristarchus on Tuesday June 08 2021, @10:08PM
Yes, the word is "sic", according to your local grammar Nazi.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @05:33PM (10 children)
That’s why they paid in the first place, the daily cost from disruption was far more than the ransomers were asking for.
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Tuesday June 08 2021, @05:54PM (1 child)
The ransom was even cheaper than putting up good security. and they got a nice price bump out of the deal. Pays the ransom, and for a new yacht..
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:02PM
Ransomware might even offer a loyalty punched card (80 column) so after 79 ransomware attacks, your 80'th attack is free!
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by canopic jug on Tuesday June 08 2021, @05:57PM (6 children)
I hope that law enforcement throws the book at the executives who signed off on the ransom payment.
Every payment to the crackers helps them bankroll bigger and better skills and tools to be able to take on harder yet more valuable targets. Back before any of the companies had paid, it was barely even a cottage industry and just rolled the bums with unpatched stock M$ systems. Now it is really big business with subsidiaries and outsourcing and the lot. For the most part they've been going after the low-hanging fruit, that is to say the assholes running M$ products connected to the Internet, patched or not. However, now with the exxtra resources they have started to build one-off strategies and tactics custom designed for specific fairly hardened targets. Even if that is more labor intensive, the payoff can be that much higher and they now have the money to take a shot at it.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Catalyst on Tuesday June 08 2021, @06:00PM (2 children)
Except I bet the FBI told them to do the payment so it could be tracked...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @06:27PM (1 child)
Follow the money. It works with anything. And Bitcoin and others cryptostuff are PUBLIC LEDGER. A bank account is actually a private ledger so it has quite a bit more privacy to it. The public ledger is just obfuscation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 09 2021, @07:39PM
Oh yeah, the international Jew bankster cartel is so much more private than Monero. STFU, you dumb goy slave.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 08 2021, @06:57PM (2 children)
Not to mention: this is only a partial recovery, some million US$+ are still in the hackers' control.
It's a message: they will strike back, and I don't see what's stopping them from eventually taking more than they gave in the first place. Kind of a lame message, but better than just shrugging and paying and forgetting about it.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @10:40PM (1 child)
partial is 2.3 of 4.4, so that left 2.1m to Putin and Co, if the had anything to do with it the hackers got nothing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 09 2021, @02:02AM
Don't forget the 40% for the Big Guy.
(Score: 1) by echostorm on Tuesday June 08 2021, @09:42PM
Keep in mind that the reason everything was disrupted was not because the pipelines were threatened, its because they couldn't risk not billing anyone properly.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @05:58PM (7 children)
I can't imagine the FBI getting the key by hacking. I *can* imagine Biden administration officials talking to Russians, the threat of sanctions being applied, and the look on the hacker's face as a representative of Putin's government told him what he had to do.
XKCD 538 [xkcd.com] may also apply.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @06:23PM (2 children)
Cartoon seems like a practical plan for a complicated problem.
What I can't imagine is why paying the ransom does any good. How would you ever know the bad guys left your computer system. Seems like you would still have to rebuild everything to know you could trust it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @06:41PM (1 child)
For must businesses, being compromised isn't a problem, having access to data and services restricted is a problem. As long as they can make money without it, security won't be a priority.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 09 2021, @04:47PM
This is the dark side of allowing businesses to use waivers to get them out of any responsibility. I used to live in China, where personal injury suits were effectively impossible at that time. But nobody had any real incentive to conduct business safely, unless the authorities decided that they wanted to care about it. So, it wasn't uncommon to see dozens of power lines in a rat's nest running between poles and steps wouldn't always be even. Water may or may not actually drain properly and I was in a restaurant with literal sewage backed up all over the floor.
Things are probably a bit better now, but there's a reason why all developed countries have some provision to hold people accountable when they put other people at risk. And it's a shame that the US is regressing to a point where companies can kill people and get off with a slap on the wrist, even when the behavior leading up to the deaths was egregious.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @06:44PM (2 children)
The definition of "troll" needs to be re-read.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:12PM
Today's millennial transgender niggers have no clue how to properly use mods.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @10:19PM
I disagree. Anybody still trying to push the tired "Russian Hackers" narrative is a Jew, and Jews are by definition trolls -- linguistically through lies and Pilpul, and phenotypically through literally looking like trolls.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Taxi Dudinous on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:26PM
From TFA
And how they likely did that.
Looks like they only recovered the affiliates part of the ransom though.
Developer still has their cut.
And did anyone notice when this happened last year?
https://cisomag.eccouncil.org/paying-ransom-is-now-illegal-u-s-dept-of-treasury-warns/ [eccouncil.org]
Paying the bad guys is apparently illegal now. The Feds were likely all over Darkside before the attack. Probably got involved, and advised CP as to how to proceed.
Or not. :^)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday June 08 2021, @07:04PM
Make it cheaper to invest in security than to pay the ransomware + the tax on ransomware.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by shortscreen on Wednesday June 09 2021, @12:05AM
It's funny to think that ransomware may be playing a similar role for crypto currency as taxation does for fiat currency...