When the Colonial Pipeline was hit by ransomware on May 7, 2021, it paid 75 bitcoins to restore its systems. But the money was not entirely lost. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was able to trace it as it jumped from one digital wallet to another. At one point, on May 27, 63.7 of the bitcoins were transferred to an address and stopped moving. The FBI got the private key to unlock that bitcoin wallet and was able to retrieve the funds.
The seizure was a big win for the U.S. Justice Department's ransomware task force, dedicated to investigating and disrupting cybercriminal gangs. Ransomware crippled more than one-third of organizations worldwide in a single year, and two-thirds of the victims reported a significant loss of revenue. Payments exceed $600 million in total in 2021, according to a recent report by blockchain data platform Chainalysis.
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