The U.S. Department of Justice seized about US$2.3 million in bitcoin ransom paid to the hackers behind the attack on Colonial Pipeline.
An affidavit filed on Monday said the FBI was in possession of a private key to unlock a bitcoin wallet that had received most of the funds. It was unclear how the FBI gained access to the key.
“unclear how the FBI gained access.” From other sources it sounds like the FBI used a subpoena and gained control over the rented cloud server the hackers were using. Private key sitting on the server, it seems.
Check It Out: $2.3 Million Bitcoin Seized from Colonial Pipeline Hackers
Great story today in the WSJ. https://apple.news/A7xcVNrrRSNeX_TVje3gzZA
Made my day.
“unclear how the FBI gained access.” Keep it unclear, they will need to use the the procedure again.
“For years, the underworld thought its phones were safe. They fell for an encrypted app trap”
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/australia/afp-fbi-anom-app-operation-ironside/index.html