Moscow rejects US ransomware attack claims

AFP.com, 11 May, 2021-Russia on Tuesday rejected US accusations that a Russia-based group was behind a ransomware attack that forced the shutdown of the largest oil pipeline in the eastern United States.

“We categorically reject the baseless fabrications of individual journalists and reiterate that Russia does not conduct ‘malicious’ activity in the virtual space,” the Russian embassy in the United States said in a statement.

On Monday, US President Joe Biden said there was no evidence of Russian government involvement in the cyber-attack on the US fuel pipeline but said there were indications the ransomware was “in Russia.”

“They have some responsibility to deal with this,” he said.

The FBI identified the group behind the hack of Colonial Pipeline as DarkSide, a shadowy operation that surfaced last year and attempts to lock up corporate computer systems and force companies to pay to unfreeze them.