U.S. Government Denies Disturbing Russian Hackers DarkSide Over Colonial Pipeline Attack
United States officials confirmed that the U.S. government was not the reason for the recent shutdown of the servers owned by Russian hackers DarkSide. The confirmation was made by four officials to The Washington Post, as the Colonial Pipeline recently experienced another network problem that concerns their communication, that prompted interruption in the shipper's system in requesting and planning shipments.
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U.S. Government Denies Responsibility on DarkSide Servers Shut Down
On Friday, London-based blockchain analytics firm Elliptic highlighted that they identified a bitcoin wallet the hacker used in collecting payments. The analytics firm confirmed on Tuesday that the Russian hackers gathered at least $90 million in bitcoin from their 47 victims. The Russian hackers announced last week that they had lost access to their servers, where they usually display the stolen data from victims and store ransoms from their victims.
CNBC highlighted that researcher Intel 471 obtained a note saying that DarkSide blamed the "pressure from the U.S." for their closing. However, officials in anonymity told The Washington Post that neither the military cyber operators nor any other agency from the United States took "such action."
"We don't talk on comment on cyber planning, intelligence, or operations as a matter of operational security," said Cyber Command spokeswoman Katrina Cheesman. Spokespeople from the Justice Department, FBI, National Security Council, and National Security Agency also declined to comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, Former White House Cyber Coordinator during the Obama administration, Michael Daniel, also agreed that the U.S. government was not behind the shut down of the servers owned by the Russian hackers. He underscored that the shutdown was too soon for the U.S. government to be behind it.
"From a technical standpoint, it takes time to figure out what your targets are going to be and what you want to do to them," said Daniel. Daniel furthered that the time frame provided was too limited in designing such a disruption.
Cyber experts also think that the disappearance of Russian hackers is a scam. Cyberthreat intelligence expert from Recorded Future, Dmitry Smilyanets, expressed his belief that the group will rebrand and "return with a new banner" due to the money that can be made.
Colonial Pipeline CEO Confirms Paying Russian Hackers DarkSide
But before the shut down of DarkSide's servers and the denial of the U.S. government on its accountability on the issue, Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount confirmed that their company paid at least $4.4 million to the hackers responsible for the ransomware attack on their system.
Despite the trouble Russian hackers DarkSide has caused to Colonial Pipeline and the U.S. government, The Verge noted that the hackers were oddly apologetic to the outcome they have caused. "Our goal is to make money and not creating problems for our society," said the group in a statement.
WATCH: Colonial Pipeline hackers reportedly got $90 million in bitcoin before shutting down - from CNBC Television
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