WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The hacking group blamed for crippling a major U.S. pipeline company has claimed responsibility for breaking into three more companies on Wednesday, saying it was publishing hundreds of gigabytes of data from a Brazilian battery firm, a Chicago-based tech company, and a British engineering firm.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the claims. Messages seeking comment from the hackers DarkSide – sent via their website – were not immediately returned. The three companies were also not immediately available for comment.
The affected pipeline operator, Colonial Pipeline, plans not to pay the ransom demanded by the hackers who encrypted their data, sources familiar with the company’s response told Reuters on Wednesday. Instead, the company is working closely with law enforcement and U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye to mitigate the damage and restore operations.
The hack prompted Colonial to shutdown some operations, leading to panic buying and gasoline shortages in the United States.
(Reporting by Raphael Satter, Editing by Franklin Paul and Marguerita Choy)
