The National Archives reported on May 10 that the Colonial Pipeline Company, which operates the largest pipeline on the U.S. East Coast, was hit by a massive cyber attack last week that the Biden administration appeared to back away from, saying it was “a private sector decision” whether the company should pay the hackers’ ransom.
On Friday, May 7, Colonial Pipeline Company issued a statement saying that the cyberattack had taken “certain systems offline, suspended all pipeline operations and impacted IT systems. The company said in an updated statement Saturday that it had “determined that the cyberattack involved ransomware.
The FBI issued a statement saying that “DarkSide ransomware, was responsible for the disruption of Colonie’s pipeline network.” However, Colonie did not mention whether a ransom was paid, nor did it release any statement about DarkSide. Nor has Dark Side announced on its website that the attack was carried out by them. However, a lack of acknowledgement usually means that either the youngest is in negotiations with the victim or the victim has paid the ransom.
Dark Side has claimed that it will not attack hospitals and nursing homes, educational or government targets and will donate a portion of the proceeds to charity. The criminal group has been active since last August and is the most influential and typical extortion ring.
Asked at a White House news conference whether the Biden administration would offer a ransom payment to Colonie, Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, said it was “a private sector decision” whether the company should pay the ransom.
In the past year, the nation has been hit by frequent cyber extortion, with attacks that have forced hospitals to delay critical care, disrupted schooling and paralyzed police departments and municipalities. The average ransom amount also rose nearly threefold to more than $310,000, and victims experienced an average of 21 days of network disruption. In response, the Department of Justice has also created a new task force dedicated to responding to ransomware attacks.
Shortly before that, the Biden administration was planning a cyber attack on Russia for their alleged involvement in the SolarWinds breach that hit the systems of U.S. IT management companies in March, according to the National Archives, but the Biden administration said nothing about what the FBI learned about Chinese Communist-backed hackers also using SolarWinds to spy on U.S. government agencies.
The National Archives has reported many suspicious links between SolarWinds and the Chinese Communist Party, especially when the groundbreaking cyberattack occurred shortly after SolarWinds expanded its business cooperation to the Chinese (Communist) Republic.
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