Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid the hackers nearly $5 million, despite suggestions to contrary

After a devastating and deeply embarrassing cyberattack on one of the United States’ largest oil pipelines, one that forced many gas stations to shut down and reportedly caused average national gas prices to rise above $3 for the first time since 2014, the oil is flowing again. But Bloomberg is reporting that Colonial Pipeline had to pay a nearly $5 million ransom to get there, and it paid that ransom within mere hours.

That’s striking, because it’s the opposite of what Reuters, CNN, and others reported in the wake of the attack. “Sources familiar with the company’s response,” a phrase often used when a company doesn’t want to be named, suggested the company had no plans to pay hackers. CNN’s sources insisted Colonial Pipeline had not...

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