Federal Officials Recover Bitcoin Ransom From Colonial Pipeline Attack

Coindesk ^ | 6/7/21 | Nikhilesh De

[JonPreston]

Federal officials have recovered millions of dollars in bitcoin (BTC, -0.58%) that Colonial Pipeline paid to a criminal outfit during a ransomware attack, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

Colonial Pipeline paid about $4.4 million in bitcoin to the attackers, linked to the Darkside ransomware group, after its payment systems were frozen last month. The company had to halt fuel transportation across the East Coast of the U.S., sparking fears of a gas shortage in a dozen states.

“The Department of Justice has found and recovered the majority of the ransom paid,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.

[JonPreston]

Did they forget to give 10% "for the Big Guy"?

[rigelkentaurus]

Couldn’t have been that hard to find. Just had to ask CIA / FBI where they put it.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

Yep.

Didn’t cost them a damn thing- just US.

[liberalh8ter]

Did they forget to give 10% "for the Big Guy"?

They said they recovered “most of it” so don't worry, I'm pretty sure the “big guy” got his 10%.

[Secret Agent Man]

Hackers such as these need to e found and summarily executed. on the spot.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

How much have they made with the price of fuel skyrocketing?

I am sure they have made up more than enough to cover the 10%.

[Little Ray]

Well, there goes my faith in Bitcoin. I thought transactions were supposed to be impossible for governments to trace much less reverse.

[a fool in paradise]

is bitcoin worth more or less today than when they had to buy it?

[sphinx]

I hope there were no survivors of the “recovery operation.”

[eyeamok]

The Department of Justice has found and recovered the majority of the ransom paid

In other words, the CIA or the FBI were the Hackers.

[Nateman]

Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. When it comes to the District of Criminals I don’t believe anything until it has been officially denied.

[BushCountry]

Wow, this puts a big dent in the myth of Bitcoin being secure even from government seizure. Scary actually.

[RetiredTexasVet]

A very good chance that you are right.

[ptsal]

Did they check Hunter’s laptop?

[RedStateRocker]

But slowly, and after/as part of *extensive* interrogation.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I’ve heard that also, how Bitcoin transactions were supposedly completely secret.

It’s good they were able to recover that ransom.

I was skeptical of claims that bitcoin transactions were untraceable, because don’t we leave a footprint or trail on the internet, with everything we do online? And I didn’t understand, how would dealing with Bitcoin on the internet be any different from any other internet transaction which can be searched and retrieved?

[billyboy15]

How much have they made with the price of fuel skyrocketing?
**********************************************************

I’m in SC right at the border with NC and although we saw a spike from $2.59 to $2.99 it lasted about a week and we are paying $2.59 again.

[DesertRhino]

Did they trace the bitcoin transaction? Or did they somehow have a suspect and get the money from some bank account he deposited it into?
And of course, we need to always consider that this could simply be an outright lie designed to discourage other ransomeware attacks.

[Retrofitted]

The feds found their wallet; sounds like they didn't use a cold one from this:

"FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said federal officials had seized a bitcoin wallet that held the proceeds from the Colonial attack.

“Victim funds were seized from that wallet, preventing Darkside actors from using them,” he said.

[Magnum44]

That was fast...Did they have Durham on the case??