{"id":5507,"date":"2021-05-13T16:06:01","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T21:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507"},"modified":"2021-05-17T12:45:45","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T17:45:45","slug":"colonial-pipeline-paid-nearly-5-million-to-hackers-in-ransomware-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507","title":{"rendered":"Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million to hackers in ransomware attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" autoplay controls poster=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/106881792-1620820062835-gettyima.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Colonial-Pipeline-Paid-Hackers-Nearly-5-Million-in-Ransom-Bloomberg.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Colonial Pipeline paid the hackers who shut down some of its networks nearly $5 million in ransom, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said Thursday.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"a large green field with trees in the background\" src=\"https:\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/BB1gHGqD.img?h=533&amp;w=799&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f\">\u00a9 Provided by NBC News<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>News of the payment was first reported by&nbsp;Bloomberg. The U.S. official did not say how or when the company paid.https:\/\/www.dianomi.com\/smartads.epl?id=3533<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Colonial, which operates the country\u2019s largest fuel pipeline, announced it had been hacked Friday, and shut down all four of its major pipelines that serve the Eastern and Southeastern United States as a precaution. Gas&nbsp;prices rose, and&nbsp;some stations&nbsp;ran out of fuel. The Department of Transportation issued an&nbsp;emergency order&nbsp;allowing truckers driving fuel in affected states to work longer hours than federal regulations normally allow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A third-party consulting company that now handles Colonial\u2019s press inquiries declined to comment on the payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company&nbsp;announced Wednesday&nbsp;that it was resuming operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The FBI has historically&nbsp;discouraged, but not prohibited, American ransomware victims from paying hackers, as a payment isn\u2019t guaranteed to work and can encourage criminals to continue attacking others. In a press conference Monday, Anne Neuberger, the White House\u2019s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies,&nbsp;acknowledged&nbsp;that some organizations might find paying the criminals off can be in their best interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe recognize, though, that companies are often in a difficult position if their data is encrypted and they do not have backups and cannot recover the data,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hackers, known as DarkSide, are one of a number of ransomware groups that hold organizations\u2019 files hostage and demand a payment, either by locking their files and making them unusable or threatening to release them to the public. Top global energy expert: Gas shortages &#8216;will persist until next week&#8217; in some places<div class=\"mtz-download-btn\" vid=\"https:\/\/assets.springserve.com\/video_creatives\/000\/139\/747\/ForeverMediainc_Topeka_techs_15secs-1667262.mp4\">                 <span>Download<\/span>                 <div class=\"mtz-download-btn-dropdown\"><div class=\"mtz-download-btn-dropdown-item\" quality=\"720\">720<\/div>         <\/div>             <\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DarkSide, like many ransomware gangs, are&nbsp;believed to operate in Russia, and their ransomware program is designed to shut down if they infect computers that work in the Russian language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Joe Biden&nbsp;said Monday&nbsp;that U.S. intelligence believes DarkSide to be operating within Russia\u2019s borders, and that while it didn\u2019t appear to be directed by the Russian government, he is \u201cgoing to have a conversation\u201d with Russian President Vladimir Putin about such groups. \u201cThey have some responsibility to deal with this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DarkSide in particular is notorious for providing victims who pay with a decryption program that works painfully slowly, said Brett Callow, an analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Colonial retained the cybersecurity company Mandiant to deal with the attack. Mandiant doesn\u2019t directly pay ransomware gangs on clients\u2019 behalf, a spokesperson for the company said, but acknowledges victims can choose to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Colonial Pipeline paid the hackers who shut down some of its networks nearly $5 million in ransom, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said Thursday.\u00a9 Provided by NBC News News of the payment was <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507\" title=\"Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million to hackers in ransomware attack\">[read more]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million to hackers in ransomware attack -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million to hackers in ransomware attack -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Colonial Pipeline paid the hackers who shut down some of its networks nearly $5 million in ransom, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said Thursday.\u00a9 Provided by NBC News News of the payment was [read more]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/webfxonline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-13T21:06:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-17T17:45:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/22.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"434\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"webfxadmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"webfxadmin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"webfxadmin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b895cf119df5f037917aca0a8c00b3db\"},\"headline\":\"Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million to hackers in ransomware attack\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-13T21:06:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-17T17:45:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507\"},\"wordCount\":477,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507\",\"name\":\"Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million to hackers in ransomware attack -\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-13T21:06:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-17T17:45:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=5507#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million to hackers in ransomware attack\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"Website &amp; 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