Justice Department Recovers Ransom Paid to Hackers

“The Justice Department said on Monday that it had recovered much of the ransom paid to hackers last month who shut down the computer systems of Colonial Pipeline,” the New York Times reports.

“Colonial had paid a ransom worth roughly $4.4 million in Bitcoin to the Russian hacking group DarkSide after it used ransomware… The seizure on Monday marked a first-of-its-kind effort by the Justice Department to hijack a cybercriminal group’s profits through a hack of its Bitcoin wallet.”

“The Justice Department said that it had seized 63.7 Bitcoins, currently valued at about $2.3 million. (The value of a Bitcoin has dropped over the past month.)”