Colonial âransomwareâ attack shows cyber frailty of US energy grid
Will Englund, Taylor Telford and Ellen Nakashima
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Washington | A major fuel pipeline that was shut down after a brazen cyberattack will probably come back online by weekâs end, officials said on Monday (Tuesday AEST), as security experts warned the nation must take more seriously persistent vulnerabilities in Americaâs ageing energy infrastructure.
The Colonial Pipeline running from Houston to New Jersey, supplying the east coast with 45 per cent of its fuel, was taken offline on Friday (Saturday AEST) after a hacker group known as DarkSide threatened to expose private data unless the Georgia-based company paid a fee - known as a âransomwareâ attack.
by Binoy Kampmark / May 11th, 2021
It should be making officials in the White House tremble. Critical infrastructure supplying 45% of the East Coast’s diesel, gasoline and jet fuel, left at the mercy of a ransomware operation executed on May 6. In the process, 100 GB of data of Colonial Pipeline was seized and encrypted on computers and servers. The next day, those behind the operation demanded a ransom, or the material would be leaked.
The consequences are telling. The operator, taken offline to enable an investigation to be conducted by US cybersecurity firm Mandiant; fuel left stranded at refineries in Texas; a spike in fuel prices at the pump – up six cents per gallon on the week to $2.967 per gallon of unleaded gasoline. “Unless they sort it out by Tuesday,” warned oil market analyst Gaurav Sharma, “they’re in big trouble.” The impact would be felt first in Atlanta, then Tennessee, perpetuating a domino effect to New York. “This is the largest impac
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Cyberattack hits one of the top pipelines in US
A shadowy group is reportedly responsible for the shutdown of one of the largest pipelines in the U.S. Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA via Shutterstock
A cybersecurity attack targeting operators of a major East Coast fuel pipeline has left the nation reeling, exposing the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure to new threats while also leaving many Americans with more questions than answers.
Colonial Pipeline said on Saturday that it was the victim of a cyberattack involving ransomware and had proactively halted all pipeline operations as a result. The 5,500-mile pipeline system transports approximately 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast, according to its website, and runs from Texas to New Jersey.