The Wall Street Journal explains how the FBI got Colonial Pipeline’s ransom money back:
Colonial Pipeline provided investigators with the bitcoin address where it paid hackers on May 8, launching them on the trail, according to court records filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The hackers moved the funds through at least six more addresses by the following day, the records show.
On May 13, DarkSide told affiliates that its servers and other infrastructure had been seized, but didn’t specify where or how. On May 27, court records show, a sum including 63.7 bitcoins traced to the Colonial ransom landed at a final address, where the FBI this week seized that portion of the funds.
The FBI said in its request for a warrant Monday that its investigators had in their possession the private key for that address. Officials didn’t elaborate on how it obtained the information, and a spokesman didn’t offer further comment.
The sum recovered by the FBI likely represents a cut of the ransom shared with DarkSide’s affiliates, said Pamela Clegg, director of financial investigations and education at blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace. On May 13, the same day DarkSide claimed its servers had been seized, the remaining funds from Colonial that haven’t been recovered by the FBI were consolidated with other crypto tied to ransom payments in a wallet that now holds about 108 bitcoins, she added.
“Everyone has their eyes on it to see if those funds are transferred,” Ms. Clegg said of the wallet.
FBI officials say the techniques they used to recover some of Colonial’s funds can be used in future cases, including when hackers attempt to transfer cryptocurrency through unfriendly overseas jurisdictions.
“Overseas is not an issue for this technique,” said Mr. Chan of the FBI’s San Francisco field office.
The hackers disrupted the US economy. It was never about money for them.
Riiight. The hackers who took down a whole system left their money in a stateside bank. Tell me another one.
Maybe if it was really the FBI doing the inside job, and then they got their own money back, it makes a lot more sense.
Remember when the FBI used to fight crime? Yeah me either.
Dear America,
This autistic following of the money has blinded our entire society to any possible angle BUT money. MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!
It’s like watching a nation of babies playing with their poop but babies can be forgiven. POOPIE POOPIE POOPIE !
Forget THE MONEY. Look at the effects. Forget Reverse Cargo Cult syndrome on ourselves by bowing ooooh, aaahhh, crypto. Holy fug, what’s next? Bowing and oooh aahhing when a plane flies overhead?
Look at the effects: The effects were to disrupt the nations economy, and stick it to the Deplorables on Memorial Day [a minor point but a tell, they just can't resist poking us]. The point was disrupting the Deplorable economy [elites don't buy their own gas, even when they drive...or rather are driven].
Dear America, stop being autistic about money, and stop playing Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Forget the money, forget playing detectives, and look to the nation’s business, or just mind your own. Autism moral and mental all around.
In related news, USG lost 400 BILLION dollars in pandemic-related unemployment fraud.
I wonder how big a cut of that $400 billion went to D party hacks.
Seriously, they want us to be obsessed with money, and that means we shouldn’t be.
In fact, even and especially if you care about money, really change your mindset to DGAF. About all of it.
That’s like being in a war* and caring about human suffering. You’ll go insane.
*and we are in one, admittedly low grade urban shit, but it will blossom most likely. The elites want a big war, and yes a big American civil war. The elites get what they want. When they put that green zone up, that was a clear signal.
$400 billion is a lot of money. It’s depressing that it’s so corrupt that that vast of sum is gone. 50% how can that even be possible?
Basically, the lockdowns caused a huge wave of unemployment claims, while at the same time the state governments sent all their workers home, leaving the system to run on autopilot. You had to file your unemployment claim through a website, and the only validation was your name, address, and SSN info that is for sale on the dark web from e.g. the Equifax breach. So the scammers were able to post large numbers of claims based on their database of profiles, and the government dutifully made the deposits, billions worth.
There are a million red flags that this is bullshit for anyone who knows anything about crypto.
The hack was done by some federal agent / agency and sent to an address under their control because it was done by a federal agent.