Inside the World of Ransomware Negotiations: From Colonial Pipeline to JBS

In January 2021, JBS, the world’s largest meat-processing company, revealed that it paid a ransom of $11 million in Bitcoin to cyber attackers. 

Similarly, in May of the same year, Colonial Pipeline, the largest refined-products pipeline in the U.S., experienced a severe cyber attack, leading to the company shutting down operations and freezing its IT systems. To restore operations, Colonial Pipeline paid a ransom of $4.4 million in Bitcoin.

What linked both incidents was the use of ransomware. Ransomware is a type of malware designed to deny users access to their data, with attackers demanding a ransom in exchange for restoring access.

Despite reports of a decrease in ransomware attacks in 2022, a Statista survey showed that 71% of companies worldwide were affected by ransomware that year, with the average ransom payment reaching $925,162. Now, in 2023, there is a resurgence of ransomware attacks, as reported by security company Black Kite.

The negotiation tactics for ransom payments are seldom reported in the news due to law enforcement agencies like the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency strongly advising against paying ransoms. However, many organizations still choose to pay the ransom as they consider it the quickest way to recover their systems.

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