“I know this is an extremely controversial decision.
It was not easy for me, ”Blount said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
According to him, the decision to pay the ransom was made because there was no certainty how seriously the cyberattack affected the operation of the company's systems.
Earlier, the president of Info Watch, Natalya Kasperskaya, did not rule out that hackers from the CIA could participate in the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline company.
A hacker attack on May 7 paralyzed the large Colonial Pipeline.
On May 13, the company announced a full restoration of fuel supplies to the US East Coast.