According to sources, Colonial Pipeline paid DarkSide hackers nearly $5 million in ransom. This news comes just after it was revealed that German chemical company Brenntag also paid $4.4 million.
Colonial Pipeline, which suffered a crippling ransomware attack on its infrastructure on May 7, 2021, just recently announced that it has recovered quickly from the attack just a week ago and expects all its infrastructure to be fully operational soon. But now, details are emerging that the Colonial Pipeline Company paid nearly $5 million in Bitcoin to hacker group DarkSide on Friday, according to people familiar with the transaction. It is also being said that the U.S. government is aware of the transaction. Although the FBI has repeatedly discouraged organizations from paying ransom to hackers saying there is no guarantee they will follow through on promises to unlock files, and it also provides incentives to other would-be hackers.
