Security News > 2021 > May > Major U.S. Pipeline Crippled in Ransomware Attack

A ransomware attack is being blamed for halting pipeline activities for the Colonial Pipeline Company, which supplies the East Coast with roughly 45 percent of it liquid fuels.

In a statement released Saturday, the Colonial Pipeline Company said it temporarily halted pipeline operations in response to a cyberattack impacting the company on Friday.

"On May 7, the Colonial Pipeline Company learned it was the victim of a cybersecurity attack. We have since determined that this incident involves ransomware," the company wrote in a Saturday statement.

Many questions are still unknown such as, was the pipeline shut down as a precaution or as a result of the cyberattack? Who was behind the attack and how sophisticated were the attackers when it came to targeting and infecting critical Colonial Pipeline Company systems?

"It's not yet clear whether they shutdown the pipeline out of an abundance of caution to stop the spread of the ransomware payload or they can't operate the pipeline because either OT systems have been impacted or they are dependent on IT systems," wrote Dave White, president of Axio, in an email to Threatpost.

The attack comes as ransomware attacks have reached near epidemic proportions.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/pipeline-crippled-ransomware/165963/