"Colonial Reportedly Paid $5 Million Ransom"

The East Coast fuel pipeline was offline for five days after an attack struck last Thursday. However, contrary to initial reports that it refused to engage with the DarkSide threat group, the company actually paid the ransom within hours of the attack.  Colonial Pipeline paid the adversaries 5 million dollars.  It is unclear whether the company’s cyber-insurance policy funded the payment.  Researchers stated that the biggest factor at play here is the feedback loop of malicious activity created by surrendering and paying the ransom. Paying the ransom allows the groups to achieve a greater level of sophistication during their next attacks, whether that be via training, new tooling, purchasing credentials, or recruitment.  Researchers also stated that feeding this industry only ensures that they become collectively more of a threat, in the long run, facilitating more breaches and more payments. Thus, the cycle continues.  The news of the company paying the ransom comes as new figures from Check Point revealed that the number of ransomware victims it is monitoring has soared  102% year-on-year at the start of 2021.  In April, the most heavily targeted sector was healthcare, with average weekly attacks during the month hitting nearly 110, followed by utilities (59) and insurance/legal (34).

Infosecurity reports: "Colonial Reportedly Paid $5 Million Ransom"