May 14, 2021

America’s largest pipeline system, Colonial Pipeline, reportedly paid ransomware group DarkSide nearly $5 million to decrypt systems that were locked in the ransomware attack of May 7.

According to Bloomberg, two people familiar with the incident claimed that a blackmail demand was agreed just hours after the cyber attack, which resulted in the company temporarily shutting down operations and freezing its IT system to prevent further spread.

The report also revealed that while the payment to DarkSide malware operators was made in cryptocurrency to access the decryption key and restore the systems, it was not enough to stop the malfunction, as the decryptor was reportedly “so slow” that backups were used in recovery efforts.

For more information, read the original story in ZDNet.