in the United States they pay hackers $ 5 million to get fuel again

The company that runs the U.S. pipeline that suffered a cyberattack on Friday, leaving thousands of gas stations without fuel across much of the United States, has paid $ 5 million to pirates in order to resume service.

As revealed by the Bloomberg agency, based on two sources close to this controversial transaction, The Colonial Pipeline inc. paid this figure in crypto-currencies so that it is not detectable and the incident occurred a few hours after the attack on Friday, which underlines the immense pressure on the company to resume service and not quit not the east coast of the country without fuel.

From Texas to New York

The Colonial Pipeline is a pipeline that begins in Texas, stretches approximately 8,800 kilometers along the East Coast to New York, and supplies the 45% of East Coast fuel. From Houston, it supplies Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, Delaware , New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. It transports about three million barrels per day of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

As several days passed and the service did not resumeAmericans have flocked to stock up on already depleted fuel. This caused that on Wednesday, for example, 10% of gas stations in Washington DC will run out of gas, while the situation was most dramatic in North Carolina (65%), Georgia (43%), South Carolina (43%) and Virginia (44%). In Florida and Maryland, 11%.

Queues to load gasoline

There were queues at gas stations, people stocking up on cans and trips canceled. In addition, theprices have skyrocketed: Gasoline sold on Wednesday at three dollars a gallon (3.7 liters), a figure that had not been seen in almost 7 years.

Once they received the payment, the hackers gave the operator a key to decrypt the virus that had been placed there and thus restore the system. This tool was so slow that the company continued to use its own backups to help restore service, the sources said.

The company has not made any official comment on this.

The hackers, who according to the FBI are linked to a group called Dark side, they specialize in extortion digital and would be located in Russia or Eastern Europe.

Earlier, some sources from the Georgia-based company had told reporters that they had no intention of paying the hackers. the “Ransomware” is a type of virus that locks files that can be unlocked if the attacker provide the codes. Some hackers have even stolen information and threaten to release it to the public, which can lead to double extortion.

The FBI doesn’t want organizations to pay hackers because they don’t have any guarantees that they’ll keep their promise to unlock the service after payment. Also because it encourages other hackers to do the same.

It is difficult for victims to decide whether or not to pay, especially when the hack causes huge problems to people. In some cases, as happened last year when the Baltimore City system was hacked, months go by until the technicians can fix the problem without paying the hackers.

Washington, correspondent

ap