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DarkSide hacker group shuts down, citing pressure from law enforcement

The hacker group behind the Colonial Pipeline attack appears to have disbanded.

Ozzie Mejia

May 14, 2021 5:05 PM

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The United States' fuel supply has been in chaos since hacker group DarkSide hacked into Colonial Pipeline. A week after the attack, the group now appears to be no more. On Friday, reports have come in that DarkSide has disbanded, citing several factors, including pressure and disruption from law enforcement.

According to the Wall Street Journal, members of the DarkSide group have told associates that they have lost access to its infrastructure and cannot continue to run. Security firms FireEye and Intel 471 add that DarkSide has felt intense pressure from law enforcement agencies, though not necessarily ones from the United States. The DarkSide group's dark web home has been down since Thursday. A CNBC report (embedded above) has added that the DarkSide group has experienced retaliation from various groups in response to its recent operations.

Colonial Pipeline was attacked last weekend, with DarkSide claiming responsibility for the ransomware hack. The hacker group later issued an apology for the attack, claiming it is an apolitical organization that does not engage in geopolitics. However, the damage caused by the attack has proven extensive to the point that the east coast of the United States has experienced heavy fuel shortages, largely caused by consumer panic. The Biden administration has been investigating the atttack and has been in touch with various foreign powers, which has included a warning to Russia about tolerating this level of hacking within its borders.

It is unknown whether DarkSide will remain disbanded or pop up in the future under a different name. We will continue to follow this story and return with any updates.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?