About 63.7 bitcoins have been recovered with an estimated value of about $2.3 million
The Department of Justice announced on Monday that investigators were able to recover most of the ransom paid to hackers who interrupted operations at Colonial Pipeline last month.
The DOJ’s recovery effort was carried out alongside the FBI and Colonial Pipeline, and began shortly after the ransom was paid to the DarkSide criminal enterprise group, which is believed to have connections to Russia.
The seizure announced on Monday was conducted by a recently launched ransomware and digital extortion task force, which was able to track bitcoin transactions. It was the group’s first operation of this kind, investigators said during a press conference on Monday. It is not, however, the first time the government has been able to recover digital currencies paid as ransom to cybercriminals.
Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount first said during an interview with The Wall Street Journal that about $4.4 million in cryptocurrency was paid to free the company’s systems.
About 63.7 bitcoins have been recovered, with an estimated value of about $2.3 million, according to the DOJ. The company paid about 75 bitcoins in ransom, according to authorities.
U.S. officials said that cooperating with law enforcement will increase the chances that ransom money paid to criminals is recovered, but they could not guarantee that efforts would be successful in every instance.
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