Photo: COLONIAL PIPELINE / copyright
The US government declared a regional state of emergency this Sunday after a cyberattack on the country’s largest pipeline network, which left it inactive since Friday night.
A group of hackers completely disconnected and stole more than 100 GB of information on the Colonial Pipeline, which transports more than 2.5 million barrels per day , the 45% of the supply of diesel, gasoline and fuel consumed by aircraft on the east coast.
Analysts The oil market figures indicate that fuel prices are likely to increase by 2% to 3% on Monday as a consequence, but the impact will be worse if the pipeline “blackout” continues for much longer.
USA He was working Sunday night in to restore service , but given the continuous failures of the main lines, the government decided to decree the state to facilitate the transportation of fuel by other means, mainly road.
“This emergency is in response to the unexpected closure of the Colonial pipeline system due to problems of the network that affect the supply of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products in affected states ”explained in the statement of the Department of Transportation.
The state of emergency covers 17 states of the country and lifts the existing time restrictions for the transport of fuel by road.
What is known cyber attack?
Several sources have confirmed that the cyber attack was caused by a group of hackers called c Dark Side , which infiltrated the Colonial network on Thursday.
“Shortly after learning about the attack, Colonial proactively shut down certain systems to contain the threat. These actions temporarily halted all pipeline operations and affected some of our technology systems, which we are actively in the process of restoring, ”said the firm.
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The energy company indicated in a statement that it was working with law enforcement, cybersecurity experts and the Department of Energy to restore service.
In the statement, specified that although its four main lines remain out of service , some smaller lateral lines between the terminals and the delivery points are already
“We are in the process of restoring service to other sides and will bring our full system back online only when we consider it safe to do so and in total compliance with the approval of all federal regulations, “he clarified. Independent oil market analyst Gaurav Sharma told the BBC that as a result of the attack there is now a lot of fuel stranded in refineries from Texas. With the emergency declaration, petroleum products could be shipped by tanker to New York, but this would not be enough to equal the pipeline capacity. ”Unless solve it on Tuesday, they are in a a big problem, “says Sharma.
” The first areas to be affected would be Atlanta and Tennessee, then the domino effect will reach New York, “he said. takes place at a time when US reserves are dwindling and demand, especially for vehicle fuels, is increasing as consumers return to the roads and the US economy tries to shake off the effects of the pandemic.
How did the attack happen?
According to Digital Shadows, a London-based cybersecurity firm that tracks global cybercriminals, the cyber attack occurred because hackers found a way to leak into the system due to the high number of engineers remotely accessing the pipeline’s control systems.
James Chappell, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Digital Shadows, believes DarkSide got login details from remote access programs, such as TeamViewer and Microsoft Remote Desktop.
The research Digital Shadows initial suggests that the hackers are probably based in a Russian-speaking country.
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