US torched for ‘bowing’ to Russian terrorists after bombshell ransom payment

There’s been a stinging reaction after it was revealed a bombshell ransom payment was made to the Russian hackers who crippled America this week.

Colonial Pipeline — the largest oil pipeline in the United States — forked over nearly $5 million last week to a criminal group that hacked the company, spurring widespread petrol shortages and panic buying across the country.

It’s been reported Colonial coughed up the ransom just hours after the ransomware attack took place on Friday.

The Georgia-based company paid the ransom in untraceable cryptocurrency, Bloomberg reported, citing two people familiar with the transaction.

Once the hackers received the payment, they provided Colonial with a decrypting tool to restore its downed IT network, according to the outlet, which reported the fix was so slow that the company opted to use its own backups to help restore the system.

The FBI believes the crippling cyberattack was orchestrated by a Russia-based criminal group called DarkSide.

DarkSide is known to extort cash from corporations and give a cut to charity — and the decision to pay the ransom has been widely slammed.

“The FBI does not support paying a ransom in response to a ransomware attack,” according to the FBI’s website. “It encourages perpetrators to target more victims and offers an incentive for others to get involved in this type of illegal activity.”

Berkeley professor Robert Reich said paying ransoms to hackers “should be illegal”.

Politician Bruce Westerman said the payment would make “Americans the target of future attacks”.

“Terrorist organisations should be met with the full force of the US Government and the message should be unequivocally understood: America does not bow to terrorists,” he said.

Asked about the payment of the ransom, US President Joe Biden said: “I have no comment on that.”

US President Joe Biden speaks about the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

Crippling impact of fuel shortage

The hacking of the pipeline sent petrol prices skyrocketing in hard-hit states and the nationwide average price rose to a seven-year high.

Chaotic scenes of panic buying played out across the Southeast as desperate drivers searched for gas.

Many stations are still dry and likely will be for a few more days as fuel begins to flow through the pipeline again, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Thursday.

As of Thursday morning, most gas stations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia were dry, according to GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan’s estimates.

Nearly half in Georgia and the District of Columbia were also out of gas, according to DeHaan.

Ransomware is a kind of malicious software that locks up a user’s data. In ransomware attacks, the hackers often demand a ransom for the unlocking or return of the affected data.

In a statement reportedly posted on DarkSide’s website last week, the group claimed, “Our goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society. From today we introduce moderation and check each company that our partners want to encrypt to avoid social consequences in the future.”

The statement, provided to CNBC by the Boston-based security company Cybereason on Monday, added: “We are apolitical, we do not participate in geopolitics, do not need to tie us with a defined government and look for our motives.”

Fuel holding tanks are seen at Colonial Pipeline's Dorsey Junction Station in Washington, DC. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Motorists fill their cars at one of the few remaining gas stations that still has fuel in Arlington, Virgina. (Photo by Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

Biden: Putin, Russian Government not involved

Asked if Vladimir Putin or the Russian government were aware of the attack, Biden paused, then said: “I am confident that I read the report of the FBI accurately and they say they were not, he was not, the government was not.”

“We do not believe — I emphasise — that the Russian government was involved in this attack. But we do have strong reason to believe that the criminals who did the attack are living in Russia. That’s where it came from,” he said.

Biden said his administration has been in “direct communication with Russia” and that international standards are needed to toughen control over such criminal groups.

“I suspect that’s one of the topics I’ll be talking about with President Putin,” Biden said.

He is expected to meet Putin for the first time since becoming president during a visit to Europe in June.

President Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order intended to improve US cybersecurity after the hack. The order, among other things, establishes a new multiagency Cybersecurity Safety Review Board to review incidents and mandates that federal systems log cybersecurity incidents and use multifactor authentication and stronger encryption.

— New York Post with AFP