Wray: FBI frowns on ransomware payments despite recent trend
The FBI's director told lawmakers Thursday that the bureau discourages ransomware payments to hacking groups even as major companies in the past month have participated in multimillion-dollar transactions aimed at getting their systems back online. “It is our policy, it is our guidance, from the FBI, that companies should not pay the ransom for a number of reasons,” Christopher Wray testified under questioning from members of the House Judiciary Committee. In ransomware attacks, hackers lock up and encrypt a victim's data and demand a payment in order to return it.
news.yahoo.comColonial Pipeline CEO explains his decision to pay $4.4M ransom to hackers
The CEO of Colonial Pipeline, during his first appearance before lawmakers, took full responsibility for the decision to pay a multimillion-dollar ransom to criminal hackers who penetrated the company’s networks in May.
news.yahoo.comUS recovers $4.4m ransom paid to Darkside for Colonial Pipeline hack
The US Justice Department said it has recovered more than half of the $4.4 million (£3.1 million) paid by Colonial Pipeline to ransomware extortionists Darkside, who had forced the shutdown of a major fuel network. DarkSide infiltrated the pipeline last month in an attack that severely disrupted supplies and caused fuel shortages for days. The group, which Washington officials believe could be based in Russia, broke into the computer systems of Colonial and forcing the shutdown of its 5,500-mile
news.yahoo.comUS has recovered ransom payment made after pipeline hack
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 Biden administration Justice Department, and reflects what U.S. 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. Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline, which supplies roughly half the fuel consumed on the East Coast, temporarily shut down its operations on May 7 after a gang of criminal hackers known as DarkSide broke into its computer system.
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