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Showing Original Post only (View all)Colonial Pipeline Reportedly Paid $5M Ransom to Free Data System [View all]
Source: The Street
Colonial Pipeline Co. reportedly paid Eastern European hackers almost $5 million in ransom on Friday to free up its data system, after it had shut its East Coast pipeline system.
Two knowledgeable sources provided the information to Bloomberg. Their account conflicted with reports earlier this week that the company wouldn't pay ransom to the hackers.
The payment was made in the form of untraceable cryptocurrency within hours after the attack, which had led Colonial to close its pipeline for safety, the sources said.
Once the hackers got their money, they gave Colonial a decrypting tool to restore its frozen computer network, the sources said. The tool acted slowly, so the company continued using its own backups to restore the system, one of the sources said.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/colonial-pipeline-reportedly-paid-5m-ransom-to-free-data-system/ar-BB1gHvVG
Unlike the Trump administration, which tried to hide the hacks to the US infrastructure, Biden should treat this like a terrorist attack originating from the country of the hackers.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-politics-mark-levin-coronavirus-pandemic-hacking-6080f156125a4a46edef2a6dcf826611
WASHINGTON (AP) Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested without evidence that China not Russia may be behind the cyber espionage operation against the United States and tried to minimize its impact.
In his first comments on the breach, Trump scoffed at the focus on the Kremlin and downplayed the intrusions, which the nations cybersecurity agency has warned posed a grave risk to government and private networks.
The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control, Trump tweeted. He also claimed the media are petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!).
There is no evidence to suggest that is the case. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late Friday that Russia was pretty clearly behind the operation against the United States.