U.S. Offered No Advice on Whether Colonial Pipeline Should Pay Pay Ransom The White House declined to weigh in Monday on whether companies that are hacked like Colonial Pipeline should pay ransom to their attackers, but a national security official said it may offer some advice in the future. Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber, told reporters that the FBI has been tracking the ransomware group blamed in the attack, DarkSide, since at least October. The U.S. intelligence community is investigating whether the Colonial Pipeline hackers have ties to the Russian government or other nation states, Neuberger said.