Ransomware gang with ties to Colonial Pipeline hack reportedly recruiting talent under guise of real tech company

A computer hacker.
(Image credit: THOMAS SAMSON/AFP via Getty Images)

A criminal organization believed to have produced the software used in the Colonial Pipeline hack earlier this year has "set up a fake company to recruit potential employees," The Wall Street Journal reports, according to researchers at Microsoft and intelligence firm Recorded Future.

The phony cybersecurity organization is reportedly using the name Bastion Secure, and is thought to be run by "well-known hacking group" Fin7, Recorded Future and Microsoft told the Journal. They're believed to have attacked "hundreds of businesses, stolen more than 20 million customer records and written the software used in a hack that disrupted gasoline delivery in parts of the Southeastern U.S," the Journal explains, per federal prosecutors and researchers.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.