Ransom group linked to Colonial Pipeline hack is new but experienced
Reuters | May 10, 2021 10:01 PM EDT
A truck passes holding tanks at Colonial Pipeline s Linden Junction Tank Farm in Woodbridge, New Jersey, U.S., (Photo : REUTERS/Hussein Waaile)
The ransomware group linked to the extortion attempt that has snared fuel deliveries across the U.S. East Coast may be new, but that doesn t mean its hackers are amateurs.
Who precisely is behind the disruptive intrusion into Colonial Pipeline hasn t been made officially known and digital attribution can be tricky, especially early on in an investigation. A former U.S. official and two industry sources have told Reuters that the group DarkSide is among the suspects.
Who are DarkSide Hacker Group?
Updated: May 12 2021, 18:14 ET
A HACKER group hit the operator of a major fuel pipeline on May 7 in one of the biggest cyberattacks in US history.
The mysterious team behind the scheme, DarkSide, say they re only in it for the cash – but who are they, and how did they breach Colonial Pipeline?
3
Who are DarkSide Hacker Group?
DarkSide is a ransomware group linked to an extortion attempt that has snared fuel deliveries across the US East Coast.
The criminal gang may be new, but that doesn’t mean its hackers are amateurs, according to Reuters.
Cybersecurity experts who have tracked DarkSide said it appears to be composed of veteran cybercriminals who are focused on squeezing out as much money as they can from their targets.
Advertisement
Who precisely is behind the disruptive intrusion into Colonial Pipeline hasn’t been made officially known and digital attribution can be tricky, especially early on in an investigation. A former US official and two industry sources have told Reuters that the group DarkSide is among the suspects.
Holding tanks for Colonial Pipeline Company during Tropical Storm Harvey in Port Arthur, Texas in 2017.
Credit:AP
Cybersecurity experts who have tracked DarkSide said it appears to be composed of veteran cybercriminals who are focused on squeezing out as much money as they can from their targets.
“They’re very new but they’re very organised,” Lior Div, the chief executive of Boston-based security firm Cybereason, said on Sunday.
The retirement notice posted this week by Babuk on its darknet website
The Babuk ransomware gang says it will no longer launch attacks but instead will make its malware source code available for other attackers to use.
Babuk, which took credit for the ransomware attack that targeted the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department this week, says in a notice posted on its darknet website: The babuk project will be closed, its source code will be made publicly available, we will do something like Open Source RaaS, everyone can make their own product based on our product.
The ransomware gang, whose activity was first spotted in December 2020, also recently attacked the Houston Rockets basketball team.
27 April 2021, 11:04 am
Washington D.C. s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) admits to being the target of the latest ransomware attack after screenshots of sensitive data were leaked online.
The latest ransomware attack marks the 26th time a government agency has been hacked this year, and the third time for the police force in six weeks.
D.C. Police Department s Servers Compromised
The MPD finds itself in the crosshairs after a ransomware attack threatened to leak confidential information to the public.
According to the New York Times report on Tuesday, Apr. 27, a ransomware gang called Babuk claimed responsibility for the attack and leaked screenshots of the stolen data for proof.