The U.S. government last month recovered more than $2 million of cryptocurrency that Colonial Pipeline paid in ransom to the Russia-based hacker ring DarkSide after authorities were able to locate the private key that unlocked a digital “wallet” holding the ransom payment, the FBI said. Finding the key was not the result of a sophisticated operation or an informant — nor is it easily repeatable, said people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the methods are not public. “It’s not like a trick that works every time,” one person said.

Source: Washington Post July 07, 2021 11:00 UTC