Colonial pipeline outage caused by 'Darkside' hack

The hacking group Darkside is responsible for a ransomware attack that led to a halt in operations on the Colonial Pipeline's 5,500-mile (8,851km) fuel transport system, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said today.

The FBI "confirms that the Darkside ransomware is responsible for the compromise of the Colonial Pipeline networks" it said in a brief statement today. "We continue to work with the company and our government partners on the investigation."

The identification of the responsible party comes four days after Colonial first notified shippers it was having problems with its network. Colonial has yet to release details about the cyberattack, but federal officials say they are continuing to investigate and calling on other companies to strengthen their focus on cybersecurity. The company said it expects to restart by the end of the week.

"This underscores the threat that ransomware poses to organizations regardless of size or sector," the US Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity division executive assistant director Eric Goldstein said.

Professional hackers have increasingly turned to ransomware attacks on private companies, where they hack into critical systems and demand large payments in exchange for restoring access. The hacking group Darkside today identified itself as non-political and not affiliated with any government.

"Our goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society," DarkSide allegedly said in a statement obtained by cybersecurity researchers. "From today we introduce moderation and check each company that our partners want to encrypt to avoid social consequences in the future."

By Chris Knight