{"id":122298,"date":"2021-05-11T11:31:42","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T03:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=122298"},"modified":"2021-05-11T11:31:45","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T03:31:45","slug":"us-says-russia-based-group-darkside-behind-pipeline-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=122298","title":{"rendered":"US says ‘Russia-based’ group DarkSide behind pipeline hack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"After<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a cyber attack, Colonial said it was moving toward a partial reopening of its pipeline system<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON, May 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) —\u00a0President Joe Biden said that a Russia-based group was behind\u00a0the ransomware attack<\/a>\u00a0that forced the shutdown of the largest oil pipeline in the eastern United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FBI identified the group behind the hack of Colonial Pipeline as DarkSide, a shadowy operation that surfaced last year and attempts to lock up corporate computer systems and force companies to pay to unfreeze them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So far there is no evidence … from our intelligence people that Russia is involved, although there is evidence that actors, ransomware is in Russia,” Biden told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They have some responsibility to deal with this,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three days after being forced to halt operations, Colonial said it was moving toward a partial reopening of its 8,850 kilometres of pipeline –\u00a0the largest fuel network between Texas and New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the White House, Deputy National Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall said Biden was being kept updated on the incident, which threatened to crimp supplies of gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel across much of the eastern United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colonial said in a statement that “segments of our pipeline are being brought back online.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Colonial has told us that it has not suffered damage and can be brought back online relatively quickly,” Sherwood-Randall said, with no fuel disruptions so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ransomware forced the company to shut down pipeline controls system for safety reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DarkSide began attacking medium and large-sized companies mostly in Western Europe, Canada and the United States last year, reportedly asking for anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to a few million dollars, to be paid in Bitcoin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In return, DarkSide supplies the company with a program that will unlock its computing systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also download and retain large amounts of data from the company, threatening to release it publicly if the company does not pay up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement on their website on the dark net, they rejected allegations that they had any official backing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are apolitical, we do not participate in geopolitics, do not need to tie us with a defined government and look for other our motives,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society.”
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber, said most ransomware comes from transnational criminal groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if Colonial Pipeline or other companies should pay the ransom, she said the Biden administration has not offered advice on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They have to balance the cost-benefit when they have no choice with regard to paying a ransom,” she said. “Typically that is a private sector decision.” — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a cyber attack, Colonial said it was moving toward a partial reopening of its pipeline system WASHINGTON, May 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) —\u00a0President Joe Biden said that a Russia-based group was behind\u00a0the ransomware attack\u00a0that forced the shutdown of the largest oil pipeline in the eastern United States. The FBI identified the group behind the hack of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":122301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122298"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/122301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}