Comment: See the following story (and note its numerous knock-on effects) to get a sense of why 'cyber attack' has so much coverage at the moment: Cyberattack forces shutdown of largest gasoline pipeline in United States - UPDATES
The ransomware group linked to the extortion attempt that has snared fuel deliveries across the U.S. East Coast may be new, but that doesn't mean its hackers are amateurs.
Who precisely is behind the disruptive intrusion into Colonial Pipeline hasn't been made officially known and digital attribution can be tricky, especially early on in an investigation. A former U.S. official and two industry sources have told Reuters that the group DarkSide is among the suspects.
Cybersecurity experts who have tracked DarkSide said it appears to be composed of veteran cybercriminals who are focused on squeezing out as much money as they can from their targets.
"They're very new but they're very organized," Lior Div, the chief executive of Boston-based security firm Cybereason, said on Sunday.
"It looks like someone who's been there, done that."
Comment: So "new" in the sense of them being a new brand of hacker.
DarkSide is one of a number of increasingly professionalized groups of digital extortionists, with a mailing list, a press center, a victim hotline and even a supposed code of conduct intended to spin the group as reliable, if ruthless, business partners.
Experts like Div said DarkSide was likely composed of ransomware veterans and that it came out of nowhere in the middle of last year and immediately unleashed a digital crimewave.
"It's as if someone turned on the switch," said Div, who noted that more than 10 of his company's customers have fought off break-in attempts from the group in the past few months.
Ransom software works by encrypting victims' data; typically hackers will offer the victim a key in return for cryptocurrency payments that can run into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. If the victim resists, hackers are increasingly threatening to leak confidential data in a bid to pile on the pressure.
DarkSide's site on the dark web hints at their hackers' past crimes, claims they previously made millions from extortion and that just because their software was new "that does not mean that we have no experience and we came from nowhere."
The site also features a Hall of Shame-style gallery of leaked data from victims who haven't paid up, advertising stolen documents from more than 80 companies across the United States and Europe.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the group's various claims but one of the more recent victims featured on its list was Georgia-based rugmaker Dixie Group Inc (DXYN.O) which publicly disclosed a digital shakedown attempt affecting "portions of its information technology systems" last month.
A Dixie executive did not immediately return a message seeking further comment.
In some ways DarkSide is hard to distinguish from the increasingly crowded field of internet extortionists. Like many others it seems to spare Russian, Kazakh and Ukrainian-speaking companies, suggesting a link to the former Soviet republics.
It also has a public relations program, as others do, inviting journalists to check out its haul of leaked data and claiming to make anonymous donations to charity. Even its tech savvy is nothing special, according to Georgia Tech computer science student Chuong Dong, who published an analysis of its programming.
According to Dong, DarkSide's code was "pretty standard ransomware."
Div said that what does set them apart is the intelligence work they carry out against their targets beforehand.
Typically "they know who is the manager, they know who they're speaking with, they know where the money is, they know who is the decision maker," said Div.
In that respect, Div said that the targeting of Colonial Pipeline, with its potentially massive knock-on consequences for Americans up and down the Eastern seaboard - may have been a miscalculation.
"It's not good for business for them when the U.S. government becomes involved, when the FBI becomes involved," he said. "It's the last thing they need."
As for DarkSide, which usually isn't shy about putting out press releases and promises registered journalists "fast replies within 24 hours," the group has stayed uncharacteristically silent.
The reason is not clear. Requests for comment Reuters left via its main site and their media center have gone unanswered.
Best of the Web: World Economic Forum warns of cyber attack leading to systemic collapse of the global financial system
A report published last year by the WEF-Carnegie Cyber Policy Initiative calls for the merging of Wall Street banks, their regulators and intelligence agencies as necessary to confront an...Why would the oligarchs want to destroy the world economic system? Several reasons. First , the debt bubble is unsustainable, and with compound interest, the real value of currencies is collapsing more and more rapidly. The value of tangible assets, which the oligarchs have been buying up with this Monopoly money, is what will survive.
Second , it allows the theft of all the bank and cash savings of all the people of the world in one fell swoop. Imagine how much money that is. Probably about $150 trillion. As Klaus Schwab himself declared: "You will own nothing, and you will like it."
Third , it allows the creation of a global, virtual currency, controlled by the oligarchs, to replace the collapsed currencies, which means they can control every aspect of our lives, whether we like it or not. You refuse to get a COVID jab? Your virtual account will be frozen until you do, and until you do, you cannot buy anything, even a hamburger, to postpone your death by starvation.
And there, people, you have my take on this strange event.