WASHINGTON: A U.S. energy company says the cyberattack has forced it to suspend all operations on a major pipeline that supplies approximately 45 percent of all fuel consumed on the East Coast.
Colonial Pipeline said the attack took place on Friday and also affected some of its information technology systems. The company transports gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and home heating oil from refineries located primarily on the Persian Gulf via pipelines from Texas to New Jersey.
Georgia-based Alpharetta said it had hired an outside cybersecurity firm to investigate the nature and extent of the attack, and also contacted law enforcement and federal agencies.
“Colonial Pipeline is taking steps to understand and resolve the issue,” the company said in a late statement Friday. “Currently, our main focus is the safe and effective recovery of our service and our efforts to return to normal operation. This process is already underway and we are working hard to resolve this issue and minimize interruptions for our customers and those who rely on Colonial Pipeline. “
Oil analyst Andy Lipow said the impact of the attack on fuel supplies and prices depended on how long the pipeline did not work. A one- or two-day break would be minimal, he said, but a five- or six-day break could cause shortages and rising prices, especially in an area stretching from central Alabama to the Washington, D.C. area.
Lipow said the main concern about the long delay would be the supply of jet fuel needed to maintain major airports, such as Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina.
The exact nature of the attack was unclear, including who launched it and the motives. A Colonial Pipeline spokeswoman declined to say whether the company had received a ransom demand, as is customary in cybercrime attacks.
The ransomware encrypts the victim’s data with encryption. Criminals leave instructions on infected computers on how to negotiate ransom payments and, once paid, provide keys to decrypt software.
Although there have long been fears that US adversaries will disrupt US energy suppliers, ransomware attacks are much more common and have been on the rise recently.
Mike Chapel, a professor of IT, analytics and operations at the University of Notre Dame at Mendoza College of Business and a former computer scientist with the National Security Agency, said the systems that control the pipelines should not be connected to the Internet and vulnerable. of cyber penetration.
“The attacks were extremely complex and they managed to defeat some very complex security controls, or the appropriate level of control was not introduced,” Chapel said.
Colonial Pipeline said it transports more than 100 million gallons of fuel daily through a pipeline system spanning more than 5,500 miles.
The FBI and the White House National Security Council did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The Federal Agency for Cyber Security Infrastructure and Security asked questions about the company’s incident.
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