Colonial Pipeline CEO claims he paid ransom to hackers ‘for the country’

The CEO of Colonial Pipeline claims he ignored FBI guidance and forked over a $4.4 million ransom to the hacking group DarkSide because “it was the right thing to do for the country.”

Joseph Blount, the chief executive of Colonial Pipeline, said in an interview published Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal that he decided to pay the ransom the same day the company learned of the hacking. “I know that’s a highly controversial decision,” Blount told the Journal in what were his first public remarks since the hack. “I didn’t make it lightly. I will admit that I wasn’t comfortable seeing money go out the door to people like this.”