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White House confirms person behind Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack nabbed during Russian REvil raid

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Russian officials arrested 14 alleged members of the REvil ransomware group on Friday.
White House officials told reporters on Friday that the person behind the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline last year was arrested as part of the larger raid against the REvil ransomware group by Russian law enforcement on Friday, confirming reporting from The Washington Post. On Friday afternoon, Washington Post reporter Ellen Nakashima said a US official told her that the person specifically behind the Colonial Pipeline attack was seen in a video shared by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) of the raid on an apartment building. Multiple men are seen in the video so it is unclear exactly which man is being referred to, but the White House later held a call with reporters and confirmed that one of those arrested was the specific person behind the Colonial Pipeline attack. The FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia raided 25 different locations across Moscow, St. Petersburg and Lipetsk, arresting 14 people allegedly involved with REvil’s operations. The FSB said in a statement that many of those detained are now facing charges and noted that 20 luxury cars,426 million rubles, $600,000 US dollars and Є500,000 in Euros were seized during the raids. Police also took computer equipment and gained access to several crypto wallets. REvil and a closely-associated ransomware group called DarkSide were behind some of the biggest ransomware attacks in the US throughout 2021, including attacks on Colonial Pipeline, global food supplier JBS and IT developer Kaseya. The US has spent months pressing Russia to do more to stop ransomware gangs from operating within their borders and President Joe Biden personally discussed the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Friday, Russia said it conducted the raid at the request of US officials who provided troves of evidence about the leader of REvil and other operators within the group. Two men, Roman Muromsky and Andrei Bessonov, were named by Russian news outlets as members of the group and video emerged online of the two in court.

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