Colonial Pipeline paid almost $5 million in ransom to the European hackers behind last weekend’s cyberattack on the company’s network, which led to a six-day shutdown and gas shortages along the East Coast, two people familiar with the payment told Bloomberg News.
The Georgia-based company appears to have paid the ransom in cryptocurrency just hours after the attack, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Once the hackers received the untraceable payment, they reportedly provided Colonial with a decrypting tool to unlock of its computer network — though it still took several days for the company to fully regain control of its system.
