Damn. I was under the impression that our government was very good at tracking these funds. I don't know if i'd trust any anonymity.
A lot depends on how clever the payer, and payee are, with respect to taking steps to help anonymize their identities. IMO: A simplistic, not exactly-the-same-thing, example: You steal one million in untraceable cash from armored vehicle. You soon deposit one million in cash into your bank account. You soon busted.
Where is there any proof any of the payments came from Colonial? I have not seen that. Anonymous sources claimed 5 mil was paid by colonial but now it has been shown that the wallet received 3.75mil. That is vastly different. I don't believe colonial paid any ransom. Otherwise they would have gone back online a lot earlier. They involved the FBI and other agencies early on. Then paying a ransom also does not compute. All points to the possibility that they did not in fact pay any random.
Indeed, hacking, fake news and spying is the new way of warfare. This tactics are heavily used by Russia, China, North Korea............. and the US.
These hackings are happening for at least 10 years already. Even the" best President ever from the entire world" Trumpie could not stop it. On the contrary, he even helped Putin. Why do you think Putin liked and helped Trumpie? Since "the senile old man" is President, the Russian are not happy anymore. Which is a good sign. "The senile old man" protects the US, Trumpie sold it out for personal profits.