DOJ says it has recovered most of ransomware paid by pipeline company to Russian group

 Newsmax:

U.S. law enforcement on Monday announced that they have seized millions of dollars in cryptocurrency that was paid to a criminal cybergroup known as DarkSide by Colonial Pipeline after the attack on their systems last month.

Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount told The Wall Street Journal in May that he though he had to pay the ransom because he didn’t know how deeply the company’s systems had been infiltrated or how long it would take to get everything up and running again. The company paid about $4.4 million in ransom, most of which has since been recovered.

"Earlier today, the Department of Justice has found and recaptured the majority of the ransom Colonial paid to the DarkSide network in the wake of last month's ransomware attack. Ransomware attacks are always unacceptable — but when they target critical infrastructure, we will spare no effort in our response," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said during a news conference on Monday, according to ABC News.

"Today, we turned the tables on DarkSide," she said. "By going after the entire ecosystem that fuels ransomware and digital extortion attacks, including criminal proceeds in the form of digital currency, we will continue to use all of our tools, and all of our resources to increase the cost and the consequences of ransomware attacks and other cyber-enabled attacks."
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This is good news.  Hopefully, they will also be able to capture the perps behind this attack.  There is no indication in the reports of Russian cooperation in the recovery.  There also was no indication that the same people were behind the cyberattacks on the meatpacking company.