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Colonial pays huge ransom

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Grandpa Shooter:
I just read an article about Colonial paying a $5,000,000 ransom to the hacker group that tied up their computer system (which apparently did not cripple the pipeline) after claiming they would never do that.  Aside from that being a dangerous concession to terrorism, doesn't that signal the world that we are so weak that they can shut down our systems at will?  What's next, the railroads, canals, power grids, medical technology.......?

Ben:
Colonial is a private company. I'm sure they would rather not have paid, but how much would it have cost them if they didn't pay and the gas shortage expanded both geographically and temporally? People would be calling for their heads, and the anti-oil current administration would do the same thing to Colonial that they are doing to anyone that was in the vicinity of 06JAN.

$5 million is a lot cheaper than losing everything, and all of Colonial upper management going to federal prison without bail for five years waiting for a trial on a trumped up federal charge for not delivering oil to the public. Colonial might have worked with a different administration to not pay, with the administration perhaps using the strategic reserves and/or devoting significant cyber resources to the problem. The current administration has only said this wouldn't happen if we all drove electric cars. So I can't fault Colonial.

MillCreek:
Having read about it in my professional circles, I know for a fact that various US healthcare facilities have paid ransomware to hackers who have shut down their electronic medical records.

ConstitutionCowboy:
Trace the money and blow them off the face of the Earth.

Woody

WLJ:

--- Quote from: ConstitutionCowboy on May 13, 2021, 06:25:09 PM ---Trace the money and blow them off the face of the Earth.

Woody

--- End quote ---

Wrong president

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