The United States government offers a reward for anyone who can provide accurate information about the whereabouts of this hacker group. Unmitigated, the prize offered is USD 10 million.
In May a hacker group called DarkSide attacked a vital US east coast fuel pipeline system with ransomware.
The attack caused a shortage of fuel as the Colonial Pipeline company had to shut down operations for several days. They finally chose to fulfill the hacker's wishes and paid a ransom of USD 4.4 million.
"Prizes of up to $10 million for information on malicious cyber operations that attack critical US infrastructure," the US government announced on Twitter.
DarkSide's lunge is indeed difficult to handle. Analysis from experts said that this hacker group had earned at least USD 90 million from 47 victims. However, some of the money paid in Bitcoin by Pipeline was successfully withdrawn by the US government.
The USD 10 million prize is the largest for information about hackers who commit cyber crimes. Previously, the lure of the highest prize was USD 3 million for a hacker boss named Evgeniy Bogachev.
DarkSide itself is suspected of being based in Russia like several other hackers who have the same modus operandi. They are indeed difficult to arrest because the Russian government sometimes does not pay attention to requests for arrest by western countries.
"They are said to be living freely in Russia and safe from the prospect of arrest from the local police, who routinely ignore Western accusations against Russian hackers," the BBC said.
