OREANDA-NEWS. USA authorities have promised a reward for information that would identify the leaders of the hacker group DarkSide. This was announced by a spokesman for the agency, Ned Price.

"The State Department has announced a reward of up to $10 million for information that will help identify the location and identity of those who are leading the international criminal group DarkSide, which uses ransomware viruses,"- he said in a statement.

In addition, the agency also promised to pay up to an additional $5 million for data that would help apprehend or indict individuals who participated or attempted to participate in the May cyberattack by DarkSide.

This was a hacking attack on the systems of Colonial Pipeline, one of the largest pipeline operators in the country. The cyberattack was carried out in May. As a result, the operator was forced to suspend pipeline operations and fuel supplies to refueling stations in several densely populated states on the East Coast were at risk.

Hackers demanding ransom, threatening to leak the company's internal information to the internet. As a result, Colonial Pipeline transferred about $5 million in cryptocurrency to the attackers, after which they handed over the keys to unlock the network, Bloomberg reported. US authorities were subsequently able to recover most of these funds from Colonial Pipeline. According to the FBI, the money was seized from the DarkSide cryptocurrency wallet.