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The country’s largest gasoline pipeline is mostly out of commission after the system’s operator, Colonial Pipeline, got hit with a ransomware attack.
What happened: On
Thursday, the hackers reportedly stole nearly 100 gigabytes of data
from Colonial’s computer systems, then locked up its computers and
demanded payment. Colonial shut down the pipeline Friday as a
precaution.
- That “double-extortion” scheme is a hallmark of the criminal group DarkSide, which experts consider the prime suspect in this hack.
What are the consequences?
Well, it’s like if officials shut down I-95 and you had to take Route 1, in all its traffic-light glory, from Florida to Maine.
The pipeline is the main source
of diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel for the East Coast. It hauls more
than 100 million gallons of fuel a day from Gulf Coast refineries to
major hubs up the coast, including airports in Atlanta, North Carolina,
and NYC.
So should we expect a toilet paper-like run on gasoline? No,
but the total damage will depend on how long the outage lasts. If the
pipeline is down five-to-six days, it could lead to shortages and price
increases. By last night, Colonial had restored service to some minor parts of its system, but not its four main lines.
This is a pattern...
In the past
few weeks, while you’ve been focused on the price of dogecoin, various
cyber criminals were busy launching ransomware attacks on everything
from the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, to Scripps
Health in San Diego.
- Last year, average cyberattack ransoms paid in the US increased more than 3x to $310,000+, according to the firm Coveware.
Looking ahead...cybersecurity
poses a major challenge for the Biden administration. Last week,
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called
ransomware one of his “most significant priorities
right now,” and the administration has launched an initiative to help
critical infrastructure like electric utilities and water districts
protect against attacks.
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