Colonial Pipeline was reportedly forced to hand over five million dollars in ransom in a bid to restore functionality to its east coast pipeline after it was hacked by a group calling itself DarkSide who is believed to be located in Eastern Europe.
As Bloomberg reports:
The company paid the hefty ransom in difficult-to-trace cryptocurrency within hours after the attack, underscoring the immense pressure faced by the Georgia-based operator to get gasoline and jet fuel flowing again to major cities along the Eastern Seaboard, those people said. A third person familiar with the situation said U.S. government officials are aware that Colonial made the payment.
Once they received the payment, the hackers provided the operator with a decrypting tool to restore its disabled computer network. The tool was so slow that the company continued using its own backups to help restore the system, one of the people familiar with the company’s efforts said.
A representative from Colonial declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the National Security Council. Colonial said it began to resume fuel shipments around 5 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday.
The hackers, which the FBI said are linked to a group called DarkSide, specialize in digital extortion and are believed to be located in Russia or Eastern Europe.
The news contradicts earlier reports and statements from the company which indicated that they had refused to pay any ransom to the group.
Many conservatives were dismayed that the White House allowed the company to pay the ransom, citing the bad precedent such an action sets for future attacks:
The United States government should have stepped in and stopped this ransom payment in the interest of national security. The potential implications of hackers around the world knowing they can get rich by attacking our critical infrastructure are absolutely frightening. https://t.co/WUkX7wVY7b
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) May 13, 2021
Darkside is probably run by Pelosi and her family.
Or the Bidens
l’m sure the Big Guy gets his10%!
The Biden’s can’t run anything-correctly!
Bidens or the other democratic party members.
Just criminal crimes blsckmail
Wouldn’t doubt it one bit. Why else would the government pay the ransome without an assurance that they would receive some of that money.
They should teach this valuable skill in college……then colleges would be able to say they provide a useful education.
Problem is if you understand how to stop cyber hacks, you have to know how they work. Getting paid $5 million proves there’s more money in committing a cyber crime than working for someone in their IT dept. trying to defend from a cyber hack.
Find them and eliminate them and the host nation.
This wouldn’t have happened on Trump’s watch
I agree
You got that right. He would ferret them out and use a middle to take them out.
I meant to say missle
might have happened but they WOULD NOT had gotten paid. what idiots
Exactly Trump would find out location of the terrorists hackers and MOAB’d their a s s e s 🚫💩
BIDDEN IS A MORON— WE DON’T GIVE IN TO TERRORIST AND THAT JUST WHAT HE DID. NOW EVERY DARN ENEMY WILL TRY IT. THE DIMWIT CAN’T THINK CORRECTLY. HE NEEDS TO BE REMOVED NOW. OBAMA’S GIRL BEHIND THE SCENES IS RUNNING OUR GOV. BIDEN IS ONLY IN NAME ONLY.—- HEY THAT IS SUSAN RICE OF ALL PEOPLE. I’M LIVID HE DID WHAT WE HAVE NEVER DONE IN THE PAST . SO NOW WE ARE GOING TO HAVE IRAN AND CHINA A GAIN BREATHING DOWN OUT BACKS. WAY TO GO BIDEN. AND LETS NOT FORGET ATIFA AND BLM. WE CAN’T AFFORD FOR HIM TO MAKE ANY MORE MISTAKES. HE HAS GOT TO GO NOW.!!!!!!!!!!
Dmocrap sleepy Joe Biden’s new book, “How I went from being a Putz to a Schmuck in 100 days.”
Maybe…and that would be a gigantic MAYBE, if and when Biden can break away from every weekend off, and finally meet with Putin….perhaps he could ask what Russia is doing to stop cyber terrorists from operating in their country,….if it’s not too much of an inconveinence for Ol Joe, and he remembers to take the note cards.
Leadership we can depend on! We don’t need no Keystone XL Pipeline, right joe/dems?
The Democratic party are to blame for all this. They are the one that stop are own pipeline and they are the one that should be in jail and use there own money and not our money.
Demo and CATHOLIC are now the same…
Microsoft should be held liable for any hacking into their computers. They have sold the American people defective products. If gun manufactures can be held liable then computer programmers should be held to the same standard.
Next time, there will be a next time, the ransom will be 50 million!
listen up!! LISTEN UP!!! THIS IS AN INTENTIONAL AND INSIDE EVENT!!
ELECTRONI SYSTEMS OF SUCH ARE BYPASSABLE!! THEY ALWAYS NEED A BOOGIEMAN!! THEY ALWAYS NEED CHAOS!! WITHOUT CHAOS YOU HAVE LESS COUNTERPART TO…
“ORDO AB CHAO”! “ORDER OUT OF CHAOS”!
CONGRATS TO THE DEMS/FRAUDS!!!!!! YEA YEA !!THEY COST AMERICANS 5MILLION IN TAX DOLLARS!!!!???? SO HAPPY THEY ARE IN CHARGE????? “NOT”!!!!!! A PURE BUNCH OF AS&$@&)HO@&$):LS?????? LETS KEEP THE PIPELINES CLOSED?????? IT HELPS JOBS!!! AND THE ECONOMY????????
AND WHY IS NOT A SOUL OUT THERE QUESTIONING WHY HUDSON WEST / CEFC IS ALLOWING CHINA TO DRILL FOR OIL IN MULTIPLE STATES AROUND AMERICA INCLUDING OHIO AND MICHIGAN??
TO NOTE: HUNTER IS 50% OWNERSHIP OF HUDSON WEST AND HE IS ALSO THE MANAGING DIRECTOR OF CEFC! THEY WANT YOU TO SPEND ALL YOUR THOUGHTS UPON HUNTER BEING A CRACKHEAD. BUT YOU MUST KNOW…HUNTER AND HIS FAMILY ARE GREEDY, SEXUAL DEPRAVED AND TRAITOROUS AND RICH BUT THEY ARE NOT STUPID. THEY ARE CRIMINALS INCLUDING, NOW CRIMINALS TO HUMANITY!!
ROLL IN RICO LAWS AND CUT THE HEADS OF SNAKES (plural)!!!!!!
My money says they are involved with the New Green Deal.
Another day, another biden screw up!!! This NEVER CHANGES!!! If not him alone, anyone in his regime, they foul up daily. This is crazy!!! We WILL NOT MAKE IT 3+ years!!!
LISTEN UP…THERES Need to Be MORE of a CRACKDOWN on HACKERS. U.S. GOVT…DO SOMETHING. HACKERS Need PRISON TIME…REPAY Every PENNY and a BIBLE in Their CELL. So THEY Can MEND Their WAYS. From SamuraiQueen. 😄😄😄
Why is committing crime so profitable when the left is in charge? Everybody seems to be making money off their crimes that they wouldn’t be able to make when Trump was president. China, smugglers, felons resisting arrest, hackers, you name it love having Biden in the White House because it is paying off handsomely.
Funny how that works!!! Instead of being convicted they are glorified!!! SICK AND TWISTED!!!
This could only happen to De Muck Rats!
The money probably went to the commiecrats
As long as our Dementia-patient-in-chief remains in the White House, this sort of thing will become the norm.
If Mr. Biden had not stolen the votes, we would not be having these and many other problems. None of these things happened while President Trump was in office.
Just shows other countries can take advantage of the US. Most likely know already because Biden does not have a fully functioning brain.