The U.S. government’s new task force Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force has recovered most of the millions of dollars paid in ransom to hackers behind the cyberattack that shutdown Colonial Pipeline.
Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force was created as part of the U.S. government’s response to an epidemic of ransomware attacks.
The U.S. government’s new task force has successfully collected 63.7 bitcoins out of the 75 bitcoins, approximately $4.4 million that was paid by Colonial Pipeline to the Russian based DarkSide network.
The Feds somehow gained access to the private key(s) of the Wallet(s) that had access to the remaining bitcoins.
The Feds task force likely got the private key(s) in one of three ways.
1) The FBI was tipped off by a person associated with the attack.
2) The FBI uncovered the key thanks to a careless criminal.
3) The FBI tracked down the key by leveraging information it got from Bitcoin or from the cryptocurrency exchange where the money had been bouncing from one Wallet to another since it was first paid.
It is very likely based on the Bitcoin market news today that the answer is number 3. (Bitcoin falls after U.S. seizes most of Colonial ransom)
What does this say about market speculation? The value of Bitcoin is highly based on its use in cybercrime, thus falls by almost 10%.
This type of market speculation needs to stop. Years ago, I go involved in Bitcoin when it was starting up. They opened an office in Manhattan next to our office, I stopped in after work one day and walked out with a few bitcoins.
The idea they sold me on back then was that bitcoin was going to replace currency and that the fat cats of Wall Street would not make huge profits off the currency markets and transaction fees, boy were they wrong.
Bitcoin with its foundation based on Block Chain technology appears to be an energy consuming Ponzi scheme from hell, where its use of energy by the miners to process each transaction just eats up more and more energy exponentially.
I then find a funny oxymoron from hell where some companies, especially in the electrical car market throw out press releases that they will accept bitcoins.
Is it just me or is the world of technology and its market speculative value deeply messed up, evil, and insanely overvalued?
Is Blockchain Technology Seriously Overvalued?
You can read about my thoughts over Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies on our blog posted October 21, 2018. Can we fix this?
References:
Reference 1: cnbc.com – US seizes most of colonial ransom
Reference 2: npr.org – Feds hacked the hackers
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