The company Colonial Pipeline, attacked by hackers, paid a ransom of about $5 million in cryptocurrency within a few hours of the breach, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
According to The New York Times, for the return of stolen data Colonial Pipeline paid the attackers 75 BTC.
After receiving the ransom, the hackers provided the company with tools to decrypt the compromised networks. However, according to sources, they were so slow that Colonial Pipeline continued to use its own backups to restore the system.
Earlier reports indicated the company did not intend to pay the attackers.
Experts noted that a $5 million ransom is not particularly large—hackers typically demand from $25 million to $35 million from companies of this size.
Earlier, Colonial Pipeline was attacked by a ransomware virus, which stole about 100 GB of data and blocked computer systems.
The company supplies fuel to about 45% of the population on the East Coast of the United States, and the attack disrupted pipeline operations.
Follow ForkLog’s bitcoin news in our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.