show up a report mid year of the company”decompositionAs of mid-2021, addresses linked to ransomware attacks had seized up to $81 million in cryptocurrencies.

The company stressed that $81 million should be considered a minimum for now, as the number is almost certain to rise as more ransomware titles are identified.

According to Chainlayis report, about $406 million in crypto payments were made to ransomware addresses in 2020, the highest number recorded so far.

Ransomware is malware that locks down a victim’s computers and files until a payment is made, usually in the form of cryptocurrency, and the system is then unlocked.

Read:Exploiting a loophole in the “Yearn Finance” project and stealing $2.8 million… Details here

Ransomware has dominated headlines in the US in recent days, especially after the recent attack on Colonial Pipeline, a major energy company.

Colonial eventually paid $5 million in bitcoin after its system was infected with ransomware, shutting down a pipeline system that was said to provide nearly half of the fuel on the east coast of the United States.

Recent reports indicate that the group behind the attack is DarkSide.

Data published by the analysis firm Elliptic last week identified the Bitcoin wallet of DarkSide showing that a batch of 75 Bitcoins from Colonial was issued on May 8.

Read:Study: 1,000 Decentralized Finance and Web 3.0 Projects Manage $100 Billion in Value

This wallet also showed that it received $4.4 million by Brenntag, a European chemical distribution company, which was also affected by the ransomware attack.

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