Colonial Pipeline Has No Plans to Pay DarkSide Ransomware Hackers

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The Colonial Pipeline system recently shuttered after hacker group DarkSide infiltrated their servers and encrypted its data in a ransomware cyberattack. This cyberattack took almost 100GB of data, causing a shutdown of 5,550 miles of the pipeline, which works as the main source of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for the US East Coast.

The Colonial Pipeline on Wednesday announced that it had no plans to pay to have their stolen data encrypted, and are instead working with cybersecurity firm Mandiant to restore and rebuild their data systems.

Biden touched on the cyberattack during a Wednesday address in which he was quoted as saying that there would be good news coming within the next 24 hours. Operators of the pipeline subsequently announced that they would be restarting operations. 

However, officials have also warned that it will take “several days” before operations will resume normal service.

The DarkSide group that attacked the pipeline operates under a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) business model, and first surfaced on a Russian language hacking forum in August 2020. DarkSide and their affiliates have launched a global hacking spree affecting organizations in more than 15 countries.

The group also announced on Monday that they were not associated with any government and would vet each target they go after in order to avoid social consequences. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI released a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) on Tuesday providing details on DarkSide and offering advice for preventing the ransomware threat. 

The latest development comes as the nation’s capital has recently been the target of cyberattacks by another ransomware group known as Babuk, which hacked the Metropolitan Police Department last month. The group published the data of over 20 personnel early Wednesday.

Sourse: sputniknews.com

Colonial Pipeline Has No Plans to Pay DarkSide Ransomware Hackers

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