Colonial Pipeline Hackers Netted Over $90M In BTC Ransomware

The Colonial Pipeline hackers dubbed as the DarkSide, netted more than $90 million in BTC in their latest Ransomware attack from different ransom payments as we can see more in our latest BTC scam news today.

The hacking group behind the latest ransomware attack of the Colonial Pipeline made around $90 million in BTC in dozen of ransom payments. The Darkside software was used in this month’s colonial pipeline attack but the group claims that they have shuttered since. Ransomware is a hot topic still and now even more with the latest attack on the American gasoline pipeline which had its network shuttered by the hackers. The company paid DarkSide ransomware as a service nearly $5 million in crypto to unlock its network.

This could have been a drop in the bucket in DarkSide’s ransomware haul to this day but the blockchain analytics company Elliptic issued a report that claims that the group’s BTC wallets received more than $90 million worth of total ransom payments to this date. After a report from DarkTracer which claims that 99 organization were infected with the ransomware, Elliptic found that 47 payments from a different wallet each, had been made to the Darkside BTC Wallets in just over $90 million worth of BTC that was paid in and now the company suggests that further transactions could be uncovered and the figures could be higher.

DarkSide’s RaaS model sees the group provide software for ransomware attacks to affliates that target a high-value company and attempt to infect and to lock down their computer networks or to steal sensitive data. If a ransom payment is negotiated successfully, it will be secured by the affiliate and then the amount will be split between the partners. According to security company FireEye, DarkSide will take up to 25%  of ransomware payments under $5 million or about 10% of the sums higher than that. Based on the analysis, DarkSide kept about $15.5 million worth of BTC paid and disbursed $74.4 million worth of BTC to affiliate groups.

In the case of the Colonial Pipeline attack, the company’s network led to fuel shortages in the Southeast of the United States and the reports showed that the company made a payment of $5 million in untraceable cryptocurrency, hours after the attack but it didn’t identify the coin. The New York Times later confirmed that it was made in BTC.

Source: https://www.dcforecasts.com/bitcoin-scams/colonial-pipeline-hackers-netted-over-90m-in-btc-ransomware/