[HN Gopher] US has recovered ransom payment made after pipeline ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       US has recovered ransom payment made after pipeline hack
        
       Author : nafizh
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2021-06-07 20:13 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (apnews.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (apnews.com)
        
       | TurkishPoptart wrote:
       | I read TFA, but I want to know - how is this possible? Could the
       | taskforce have offered or negotiated with DarkSide to recover the
       | $4.4m in BTC?
        
         | EA wrote:
         | If you aren't storing your crypto in an offline wallet, then
         | someone else holds the keys to your crypto.
        
         | mortehu wrote:
         | Wild guess, but maybe FBI has a database of Bitcoin private
         | keys for machines they have infiltrated, and this was usable in
         | this case?
        
         | PretzelPirate wrote:
         | This twitter thread has an interesting take based on the
         | warrant:
         | https://twitter.com/jordanschachtel/status/14019885434933329...
        
       | aazaa wrote:
       | Very little in this story makes sense. A gang of alleged hackers
       | is sophisticated enough to cause major gasoline shortages in the
       | US but dumb enough to try converting the ransom on a US-based
       | exchange?
       | 
       | An affidavit spells out some of what's alleged to have happened:
       | 
       | https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.37...
       | 
       | The agent used a blockchain explorer to track the payment. This
       | is something anyone can do. A few transfers down the line and
       | suddenly the FBI has the private key.
       | 
       | It's been speculated that because the private key is in the
       | possession of the FBI in the "Northern District of California"
       | that Coinbase was involved. The ransomers got paid, did some
       | easily-tracked transactions, then sent the funds to Coinbase?
       | They must have known full well that the FBI would be waiting.
       | 
       | The message I take away from this so far is either:
       | 
       | 1. The attackers were numbskulls who happened to get lucky; or
       | 
       | 2. The attackers never cared about the ransom and are using it to
       | mislead investigators and/or the public.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-06-07 23:02 UTC)