The United States government has announced that it is offering a bounty of up to $10 million for any information regarding the infamous hacking group, DarkSide.
U.S. Government's Bounty on DarkSide
In May, a DarkSide ransomware attack had shut down a very important 5,500-mile-long fuel pipeline on the east coast of the United States. The pipeline carries 45% of the fuel that is used on the east coast, according to BBC.
The bounty is offered by the government for information that can lead to the identification or the location of anyone within the group.
Another $5 million reward will be given to those who can give information that will lead to the arrest of a member of the ransomware group.
The cyberattack of DarkSide had caused fuel shortages after the Colonial Pipeline company was shut down for a couple of days. The company was forced to pay the group the $4.4 million ransom in Bitcoin.
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Elliptic, a crypto-currency analysis company, said that the ransomware group received at least $90 million from 47 victims.
The U.S. authorities said that they could recover 63.7 Bitcoin, which is the majority of the cryptocurrency paid by the company to DarkSide.
The amount of $10 million is the largest bounty ever offered for the arrest of a cybercriminal. It was previously held by Maksim Yakubets, the leader of another ransomware group called Evil Corp.
In 2019, the U.S. authorities and the authorities from the United Kingdom publicly named him. Before that, the record bounty was $3 million for another cybercrime mastermind named Evgeniy Bogachev.
The three have in common that they are assumed to be living safely in Russia and that they were not in danger of getting arrested by the local police.
The Russian government had repeatedly ignored the accusations of the U.S. and the U.K. regarding the hackers.
Even with the names exposed, pictures revealed, and a location published by the United States, the criminals were not arrested.
The U.S. government has less information to use in catching the leaders and members of DarkSide. But most tips show that the group's members are currently living in Russia.
Despite the massive sums of money being offered by the U.S. government, the chances of these cybercriminals facing justice are very small, according to Wired.
Colonial Pipeline Ransom
The boss of the Colonial Pipeline has confirmed during his interview with The Wall Street Journal that it paid a $4.4 million ransom to DarkSide for taking the fuel pipeline offline.
The boss, Joseph Blount, also revealed that he was the one who authorized the payment on May 7 because he was uncertain over how long the shutdown was going to be.
The pipeline carries more than 2.5 million barrels of fuel to the east coast every day. According to the firm, it also carries diesel, jet fuel, and petrol that are used by the east coast.
Blount told The Wall Street Journal that the company decided to pay the ransom after talking to experts who had previously dealt with the cybergroup. He admitted that he was not comfortable seeing the money go out to the criminals, but he figured it was the right thing to do at the time.
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Written by Sophie Webster
