Colonial Pipeline Co. paid Eastern European hackers nearly $5 million on Friday last week to resume operations, according to Yahoo Finance.
The latest intel on the matter contradicts earlier reports saying the company had no intention of paying an extortion fee to help restore the country’s largest fuel pipeline, according to sources familiar with the transaction.
The company paid the ransom in cryptocurrency within hours of the attack, facing pressure to get gasoline and jet fuel flowing to major cities along the Eastern Seaboard again. Sources close to the situation claim government officials were aware of the transaction.
After receiving the payment, the hackers provided the operator with a decrypting tool to restore its disabled computer network. However, the decryption tool was so slow the company continued using its own backups to restore the system.
Learn more: Yahoo Finance > Colonial Pipeline paid hackers nearly $5 Million in Ransom
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