(OPINION) ETH – A new report is now revealing that Colonial Pipeline Co. just paid nearly $5 million to the Eastern European hackers that shutdown the major fuel source on Friday, contradicting reports earlier this week that the company had no intention of caving to demands of cyber terrorists and paying a ransom to restore the country’s largest fuel pipeline.
According to Yahoo News, the company reportedly paid the hefty ransom in untraceable cryptocurrency within hours following the attack, underscoring the immense pressure faced by the Georgia-based operator to get gasoline and jet fuel flowing again to major cities along the Eastern Seaboard.
The report also reveals that U.S. government officials are fully aware that Colonial made the payment. While we are back up and running, what message does this send to future ransom ware hackers that would attempt to sabotage major infrastructures in our country? Yahoo stated:
“Once they received the payment, the hackers provided the operator with a decrypting tool to restore its disabled computer network. The tool was so slow that the company continued using its own backups to help restore the system, one of the people familiar with the company’s efforts said”
“A representative from Colonial declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the National Security Council. Colonial said it began to resume fuel shipments around 5 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday”
