House Homeland Security Committee ranking member John Katko
In a letter provided to The Hill and sent to acting Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Brandon Wales, Katko raised questions around the agency’s Pipeline Cybersecurity Initiative and assessments conducted on pipeline assets as part of the program.
“In the wake of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware incident, ensuring the success, growth, and effectiveness of the Pipeline Cybersecurity Initiative is more important than ever before,” Katko wrote.
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The Pipeline Cybersecurity Initiative was founded in 2018 and involves CISA working with the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Energy and critical infrastructure stakeholders to assess and secure U.S. pipeline systems.
Ransomware Cyber Attack Forced the Largest U.S. Fuel Pipeline to Shut Down
Colonial Pipeline, which carries 45% of the fuel consumed on the U.S. East Coast, on Saturday said it halted operations due to a ransomware attack, once again demonstrating how infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber attacks. On May 7, the Colonial Pipeline Company learned it was the victim of a cybersecurity attack, the company said in a statement posted on its website. We have since determined that this incident involves ransomware. In response, we proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems.