Federal authorities have recovered more than $2 million in cryptocurrency paid in ransom to foreign hackers whose attack last month led to the shutdown of a major pipeline that provides nearly half the East Coast’s fuel, according to officials.

“The sophisticated use of technology to hold businesses and even whole cities hostage for profit is decidedly a 21st century challenge,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, announcing the recovery on Monday afternoon. “But the old adage, follow the money still applies.”

“Today we turned the tables on DarkSide,” she said.

The ransomware attack on Colonial in early May prompted the company to shut its pipeline operation for 11 days, causing panic buying that resulted in gasoline shortages in much of the southeastern United States. The hackers locked up Colonial’s business computer networks by encrypting data on them and demanded millions of dollars in ransom to unlock the system.

Victims worldwide paid at least $412 million in ransom last year, according to Chainalysis, a firm that tracks cryptocurrency payments. They noted that is a conservative analysis, since many victims do not report their ransom payments.

The problem has become so acute that Biden will raise it when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva this month. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the subject also will be raised during the president’s meeting with the leaders of the Group of Seven nations in Britain a few days before the Geneva summit.

Lol bad market for the hackers

A system that works.. Imagine being able to trace the crypto payments and recover them. Where are those ediots that were celebrating and justifying the govt payment of ransom to kidnappers

What an ill written news, how did they track the money paid to the hackers, if so, where are the supposed arrestted Criminals.
The Government is just trying to cajole the public that they have everything under control, mean while, they don't.