US fuel pipeline hackers say their 'goal is to make money and not problems'

The ransomware gang accused of crippling the US fuel pipeline operator acknowledged the incident in a public statement on May 10. On its website, DarkSide wrote that it never meant to create havoc or create a problem for society. They did not directly mention Colonial Pipeline but under the heading “About the latest news” DarkSide explicitly stated that “our goal is to make money”.

The United States has already issued emergency legislation after the Colonial Pipeline was hit by the ransomware cyber-attack. The FBI accused the group that calls itself DarkSide of a digital extortion attempt that prompted Colonial Pipeline to shut down its network, threatening extraordinary disruption as Colonial works to get America’s biggest gasoline pipeline back online by the end of the week. According to BBC, the pipeline carries 2.5 million barrels a day - 45 per cent of the East Coast’s supply of diesel, petrol and jet fuel. 

Following the incident, US President Joe Biden on Monday also acknowledge the cyberattack and said that he was being “personally briefed” on the situation with the pipeline each day. In his speech about the economy, Biden said that the agencies across the government have acted quickly to mitigate any impact on the fuel supply. He added that his administration is prepared to take additional steps depending on how quickly the company is able to bring its pipeline back up to capacity. 

As several researchers speculated that the cyber-criminal gang could be Russian, Biden, however, on Monday said that there was “no evidence” so far that Russia was involved in the attack. He said that he is going to be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and “so far there is no evidence, based on our intelligence people, that Russia is involved”. 

“Although, there's evidence that the actors' ransomware is in Russia - they have some responsibility to deal with this,” Biden added. 

‘Bringing systems back online, remain highest priorities’ 

Meanwhile, US’ largest refined fuel pipeline company Colonial Pipeline said that it was a victim of a cyberattack that obstructed its operations on Sunday. In a statement, the firm said that there could be involvement of ransomware, that compromised the software, IT systems, and essential database of the firm. “Colonial proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat,” it said adding that third-party cybersecurity experts were also immediately engaged to investigate the matter. 

“Maintaining the operational security of our pipeline, in addition to safely bringing our systems back online, remain our highest priorities,” the Colonial Pipeline said. The US federal government meanwhile told a presser that the Joe Biden administration was informed of the situation and it was working with the company to assess and investigate the attack. US Justice Department immediately drafted a new task force dedicated to countering ransomware attacks.

(Image: AP/Pixabay)