Some time ago, Colonial Pipeline, the largest pipeline company in the United States, delivering gas and oil, was attacked by hackers from the DarkSide group. Taking advantage of a vulnerability in the system, the attackers encrypted the company’s data, freezing its work and demanding a ransom in the amount of $ 5 million – naturally, in bitcoins. The pipeline’s management decided to pay the hackers, but now the FBI has managed to get the money back by unlocking the attackers’ cryptocurrency wallet. True, due to the fall in the bitcoin rate, Colonial Pipeline received only a part of the funds spent on the ransom.
US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told the news outlet Reuters that the FBI officers managed to get the access key to the cryptocurrency wallet – of course, no one tells how exactly they did it. Once they reached the virtual storage of funds, law enforcement officials confiscated 63.7 bitcoins from the account, transferring these funds to Colonial Pipeline. But, unfortunately, if at the time of the transfer of the ransom, the cryptocurrency was valued at $ 5 million, then at the current rate it can be sold for only $ 2.3 million.
The FBI representatives do not provide any information about the attackers themselves. But, probably, access to the cryptocurrency wallet was obtained either from the owner directly, or from a platform that was involved in the transfer of cryptocurrency from hand to hand. Based on this, the reliability and security of bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallets, which were previously considered unshakable, have already been questioned on the network. If law enforcement agencies in just a month were able to seize such an impressive amount, having received an access key from third parties, then there can be no talk of any security.
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