The US Department of Justice returned to the Colonial Pipeline part of the bitcoins paid to hackers – Bits Media

The US Department of Justice managed to return most of the bitcoins, which the operator of the largest fuel system of the United States Colonial Pipeline paid hackers for decoding files.

In mid -May, Colonial Pipeline paid a hacker group Darkside $5 Milln in BTC for decryption files. After that, the American authorities, who suddenly understood, that even the critically important infrastructure of the country is subject to hackers attacks, brought down the entire power of their system on Darkside. As a result of the server of the hacker group, they disconnected, And the group itself announced the cessation of activities.

Most of the ransom was returned to US law enforcement agencies. According to Lisa Monaco, Deputy Prosecutor General of the US prosecutor (Lisa Monaco), The authorities managed to return 63.7 BTC. Now they are standing $2.26 million, But at the time of payment of ransom 75 BTC cost $5 million. I.e, The US authorities managed to return most of the bitcoins.

“Colonial Pipeline quickly notified law enforcement agencies, The court issued the order and the Ministry of Justice returned most bitcoins, Darkside paid by Colonial as a result of an attack ", - said Monaco.

FBI tracked the movement of bitcoins, paid Colonial Pipeline. From these funds 63.7 BTC were moved to one specific address and the FBI agents managed to get closed keys from this wallet. How exactly they managed to do this is not reported. Lisa Monaco urged American companies to conduct an audit of her infrastructures and close possible attack vectors.

According to the analytical company Chainalisys, ransomware hackers are becoming more dangerous and sophisticated, and buybacks in cryptocurrencies, received from victims for decrypting files, grow.