Chris Wray, FBI Director advised companies and individuals who have fallen victims of cybercrime not to pay ransom. He said that he fears that paying ransom will only lead to more attacks of a larger scale in the future.

“Frankly, there is no guarantee whatsoever that you are going to get your data back,” – told Wray the U.S. Senate appropriations panel.

As it’s recently became known, the Justice Department helped the Colonial Pipeline Co recover the volume of cryptocurrency worth about $2.3 million, which had been paid as the ransom to hackers, whose attack targeted gas stations on the East Coast.

The FBI managed to unlock a bitcoin wallet holding most of these funds by means of a private key. However, it isn’t known how the FBI got hold of this key.

Although federal government rarely carries out seizures of bitcoins, but authorities strive to become able to track digital money flows.

Chris Wray mentioned that the FBI has spotted new sophisticated kinds of ransomware attacks, and there is a tendency that cybercriminals start demanding bigger ransoms.

“The total volume of the money paid I think triple over the last year or so” – said Chris Wray.

Wray advised that municipal governments and companies who fall victims to ransomware attacks should contact the FBI at once. He promised that the FBI will do their best to help them. He also said that in some cases the GBI might have the decryption key – thanks to the work they have already done, so the data could be unlocked without paying the ransom to hackers.