Colonial Pipeline Paid Hackers Nearly $5 Million in Ransom

Colonial Pipeline initially said it had no intention of paying ransom to the hackers who crippled its fuel shipments.

But, it turns out, Colonial paid out $5 million in unspecified cryptocurrency hours after the attack.

In return, Colonial received a decrypting tool.

The founder of cybersecurity firm LIFARS tells the outlet that $5 million is "very low" for this kind of thing, but he speculates the hackers may have gotten nervous because of the chaos their hack unleashed.

Even though Colonial began resuming normal operations on Wednesday, people in southeastern states should brace for gasoline shortages to last for at least another week.

A Gasbuddy analyst said there will be "about 7-14 days of headaches if you need fuel in GA, NC, SC or VA. I think that by Memorial Day or shortly after, that it won't be such a project to fill your tank back up.”