Hackers move $7 billion worth of Bitcoin

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Image from: Hackers move $7 billion in Bitcoin linked to Colonial Pipeline case
In May of this year, Colonial Pipeline suffered a cyberattack coordinated by the DarkSide group, currently based in Russia, according to authorities. At the time, the criminals received a total of US$4 million in cryptocurrency as bail to prevent the leak of almost 100 GB of private data and to release the internal systems of the company, one of the largest in the fuel supply industry on the East Coast of the United States.

Since then, the amount paid by Colonial iceland mobile database has been stored and untouched in a cryptocurrency wallet — eventually taken over by another entity, according to the criminal group itself. However, it was only last Thursday (21) that the amounts were moved again.

According to intelligence firm Elliptic, the bitcoins stored in the wallet include not only the proceeds from the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, but also other rewards from blackmail crimes. The amount, currently estimated at $6.8 million, is being split and sent to a series of other wallets in small transactions — a common money laundering technique designed to make it harder to track those responsible.

Cryptocurrency laundering method used by the cybercriminal group, according to Elliptic.Cryptocurrency laundering method used by cybercriminal group, according to Elliptic. Source: Elliptic

Elliptic suggests that the new transactions in the wallet, which belonged to the DarkSide group, were carried out by the similar REvil group. Fortunately, the US government managed to “counter-hack” those responsible for the transactions, compromising their servers and ceasing their activities for an indefinite period.

Interestingly, the DarkSide group also had its servers compromised and, in addition, its cryptocurrency funds taken by other criminals. These factors, possibly linked to REvil, forced the group to cease its activities just a week after the successful attack on Colonial Pipeline.