Ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline seized

[Wathen1955]

‘Majority’ of ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline seized and returned by DOJ

The Department of Justice announced on Monday that it managed to recover some of the ransom that was paid by Colonial Pipeline to the cybercriminals behind the DarkSide ransomware last month.

While this is not the first time the government has been able to get some money back to victims, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said during a press conference that this was a first for the new Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force that was created in April to address the growing number of cyber attacks.

Monaco explained that the Justice Department and FBI seized 63.7 Bitcoins -- now valued at $2.3 million after a large dip in the cryptocurrency market -- of the 75 Bitcoins that the CEO of Colonial Pipeline admitted to paying. Despite paying for the ransom, the encryption tools handed over did not work or help the company's efforts to restore its systems.

The Justice Department obtained a warrant from a California district court on Monday in order to seize the money.

"Following the money remains one of the most basic, yet powerful tools we have," Monaco said. "Today's announcements also demonstrate the value of early notification to law enforcement; we thank Colonial Pipeline for quickly notifying the FBI when they learned that they were targeted by DarkSide."

Monaco and FBI deputy director Paul Abate explained that the seizure was part of a larger effort to impose more costs on ransomware gangs, who have spent years holding hospitals, schools, businesses and government systems hostage.

Both begged companies to be prepared for attacks and focus on contingencies in case of an eventual attack and reiterated much of the guidance that was handed down by the White House last week.

"Cybercriminals are employing ever more elaborate schemes to convert technology into tools of digital extortion. We need to continue improving the cyber resiliency of our critical infrastructure across the nation, including in the Northern District of California," said Stephanie Hinds, acting US Attorney for the Northern District of California.

"We will also continue developing advanced methods to improve our ability to track and recover digital ransom payments."

Colonial Pipeline faced significant backlash for paying the ransom but the FBI and Justice Department said they were able to use the Bitcoin public ledger to trace the payments back to "a specific address, for which the FBI has the 'private key,' or the rough equivalent of a password needed to access assets accessible from the specific Bitcoin address."

"There is no place beyond the reach of the FBI to conceal illicit funds that will prevent us from imposing risk and consequences upon malicious cyber actors," Abbate said.

"We will continue to use all of our available resources and leverage our domestic and international partnerships to disrupt ransomware attacks and protect our private sector partners and the American public."

Despite the success in this instance, Abbate and Monaco stressed that they would not be able to retrieve all ransom payments from now on and urged companies to take measures to protect themselves while also notifying the FBI as soon as possible in the event of an attack.

"What we are saying today is that if you come forward, as law enforcement, we may be able to take the type of action that we took today to deprive the criminal actors of what they're going after here which is the proceeds of their criminal scheme," Monaco said.

"We cannot guarantee and we may not be able to do this in every instance."

https://www.zdnet.com/article/majori...turned-by-doj/

[ratflinger]

So, they keeping it too?

[Aerovette]

FWIW, I don't believe these are Russian hackers. These are .gov hackers playing games and driving prices all over the place. They got the ransom back because they were the recipients of it in the first place.

Yeah yeah, tin foil. These notions say more about what the government has done with people's trust, than it says about the theorists.

[bill_daniels]

First, they didn't recover the whole amount. Next, they had to kick back 10% to the Big Guy.

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

they had to kick back 10% to the Big Guy.

Putin or Xiden?

[JRD77VET]

Originally Posted by aerovette

FWIW, I don't believe these are Russian hackers. These are .gov hackers playing games and driving prices all over the place. They got the ransom back because they were the recipients of it in the first place.

Yeah yeah, tin foil. These notions say more about what the government has done with people's trust, than it says about the theorists.

First thing I thought when I heard was "inside job".

Xiden and his control cronies doesn't want us using petroleum powered vehicles or eating meat.

What's the latest two hacks?

OIL and MEAT

[MadInNc]

[bill_daniels]

Originally Posted by Louie Detroit

Putin or Xiden?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/129526...r-emails-leak/

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/129526...r-emails-leak/

Wow- color me surprised.

[SnikPlosskin]

Somebody splain to me how you get bitcoins back? Once they are recorded in the block chain, you can’t change the transactions. They would need the key to the scammers wallet them transfer them out to....uh...I don’t get it. Maybe they were stacked in a gym bag?

[Rob]

Originally Posted by SnikPlosskin

Somebody splain to me how you get bitcoins back? Once they are recorded in the block chain, you can’t change the transactions. They would need the key to the scammers wallet them transfer them out to....uh...I don’t get it. Maybe they were stacked in a gym bag?

The wallets were hacked to get the BTC back