The boss of the leading American fuel pipeline company Colonial Pipeline said today in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that approved ransom payment of $ 4.4 million to a group of hackers who carried out the cyber attack against the company in early May.
“I know this is a very controversial decision (…) I confess that I did not feel comfortable seeing money go out and go to such people,” said Joseph Blunt. “But that was the right thing to do for the country,” he told the newspaper.
The ransom payment had been reported by several US media outlets in recent days, but the Colonial Pipeline had not confirmed this information.
Blunt, however, did not provide details on how the negotiations were conducted and how the payment was made. Several sources claimed that the ransom was paid in bitcoin.
The head of the Colonial Pipeline, in the leadership of the company since 2017, defended his decision, considering that it was the most effective way for his group to restart its activities.
The Colonial Pipeline operates a network of pipelines connecting the refineries around Houston with the northeastern United States to the New York area. It is the largest pipeline company in the United States and transports about 45% of the fuel consumed off the east coast of the United States.
The company said it discovered on May 7 that it had fallen victim to a “cyber attack” and was forced to shut down some of its systems for precautionary reasons. As a result, all its activities were temporarily suspended, something that had never happened before.
According to the US Federal Police, the cyber attack was launched by the Darskside organization, which used a redemptive, malicious program that exploits security vulnerabilities to enter a system by locking files and then demands ransom to unlock them.
Last Saturday, the Colonial Pipeline announced that it was returning to normal operation.
Blunt, however, pointed out that the restoration work would continue for months and would cost the company tens of millions of dollars.
The Colonial Pipeline again encountered problems with its computer network on Tuesday, but said it had nothing to do with the cyber-attack and did not prevent the transport of refined products.
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