re: Colonial Pipeline gave in: $5,000,000 paid to ransomware hackers

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We are living in a country run by pussy arse children.

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No, we live in a country where defending your political side is paramount to everything.

This pipeline is a "private sector issue" is the talking point today. Yet the fed literally cancelled the Keystone pipeline, which I guess isn't a private sector issue?

You can't have it both ways. Either you control pipelines or you don't. But we know they would never admit that this is a deflection because this administration is awful at everything so far.

When pirates were attacking merchant ships in the Caribbean the British navy took action.

Modern day pirates attack our pipeline and joe says “meh”


This Biden’s America thanks to the types who post in the woke sports board

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I'm guessing their CIO is looking for a different career now.

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Chances are they'll be blamed, but a zero day cannot be defended against. Neither can stupid users that click anything and everything that comes into their email.

I think he’s referring to the fact that throughout history piracy against private citizens was treated as a crime and a national security issue and now the current administration’s response to an act of piracy against a company that affects every single sector of commerce (energy) was a shoulder shrug


That shoulder shrug will only embolden future acts.

But it’s ok because it’s your team

Some American baws hanging out in a living room with a shite ton of servers just made 5 million

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I think he’s referring to the fact that throughout history piracy against private citizens was treated as a crime and a national security issue and now the current administration’s response to an act of piracy against a company that affects every single sector of commerce (energy) was a shoulder shrug


That shoulder shrug will only embolden future acts.

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You can't compare this to the piracy of old where the pirate had to physically be there. Black beard steals your ship back in the cut it's gonna be much less of a challenge to find him than tracking down DarkSide in this world of anonymity we live in today.

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You can't compare this to the piracy of old where the pirate had to physically be there. Black beard steals your ship back in the cut it's gonna be much less of a challenge to find him than tracking down DarkSide in this world of anonymity we live in today.

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And shutting down a pipeline on the eastern seaboard impacts a lot more people than Blackbeard boarding on merchant ship.


It’s ridiculous to say “that’s a private sector decision” when this impacts national security.

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How did they guarantee the hackers weren't pulling a Nigerian prince scheme and would fix the code after payment?

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Because if word got out that they didn't unlock everything, then they'd never get another ransom payment again. To keep the scam going, you have to deliver on your side of things.

I said it in another thread related to this, but we got hit one time with ransomware, but we were back up within a couple hours because we had a solid recovery protocol. Granted we're smaller than Colonial, but still. Our IT guys nuked the system, did a restore, and we were good to go. It infected a couple dozen workstations, including our main manufacturing server. It was money well spent to be prepared.

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Damn those are some honest hackers to actually follow through with giving back the systems after payment. But that probably sets a precedent that they’re more likely to get paid in the future

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This has been going on for years with municipal governments and hospitals in particular. In most cases they pay and almost universally control has been given back to the owner.

Everyone else always wants the entity to take a stand but it is always cheaper and easier to pay the ransom. From what I have seen the ransom is usually an amount that hurts just a little but isn't enough the company/government can possibly pay. The fact that these hackers be it one group or hundreds keeps giving back the keys to the kingdom is why it continues to work.

OK, who is next ?