Either the person or group behind the scheme, Doss says, or someone associated with DarkSide, a Russia-based ransomware developer that leases its malware to other criminals for a fee or a share of the proceeds. One possibility is that the FBI was tipped off by a person associated with the attack. She added that cyberattackers will go to great lengths to guard any information that could lead someone to associating the key with an individual or organization: 'They're going to really try and cover their tracks.' Officials likely got the private key in one of three ways 'The private key is, from a technology perspective, the thing that made it possible to seize these funds,' Doss said. One of the reasons criminals like to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is the anonymity of the entire system, as well as the idea that funds in any given cryptocurrency wallet can be accessed only with a complex digital key. However, officials have not disclosed how they got that key.

National Security The Colonial Pipeline CEO Explains The Decision To Pay Hackers A $4.4 Million RansomД¬ourt documents released in the Colonial Pipeline case say the FBI got in by using the encryption key linked to the Bitcoin account to which the ransom money was delivered. To resolve the attack on Colonial Pipeline, the company paid about $4.4 million May 8 to regain access to its computer systems after its oil and gas pipelines across the eastern U.S were crippled by ransomware. A new task force holds the keyДuring a press conference Monday, top federal law enforcement officials explained that the money was recovered by a recently launched Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force, which had been created as part of the government's response to a surge of cyberattacks. That's because there are several unexplained factors that contributed to the operation's success. 'What we don't know is whether or not this is going to pave the way for future similar successes.' 'Ransomware is very seldom recovered,' said April Falcon Doss, executive director of the Institute for Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown Law, who described it as 'a really big win' for the government. Experts say it was a surprising outcome to an increasingly frequent and severe crime. The Department of Justice on Monday touted the recovery of $2.3 million - about half - of the ransom that was collected by hackers in the Colonial Pipeline attack last month. It managed to recover $2.3 million of the ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline in an attack earlier this year, the department announced Monday. The Justice Department has assembled a new task force to confront ransomware after what officials say was the most costly year on record for the crippling cyberattacks.

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