Ransomware attack shuts gas supply in United States

A ransomware attack on a gas supplier has reportedly shut down the transport and supply operations across East Coast since Saturday last week and highly placed sources say that the incident might halt the operations for the next few days to come.

IT Staff of Colonial Pipeline are currently working 24×7 to resolve the incident and sources say that they already have a data continuity plan in place to cater to their needs during the time of such disasters.

Colonial Pipeline is said to transport over 2.9 millions of fuel from refineries to Southern part of United States via a 5,500 miles (8500 kms) of pipeline duct. This includes the transport of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to related companies operating in different sectors.

Trade analysts say that if supply doesn’t meet the demand, the prices of the gas supply might surge in coming days in all the areas close to East Coast. However, Colonial Pipeline says that there will probably be no hike in the prices for the next couple of weeks and all depends on how fast the cyber attack incident can be resolved.

Note- A ransomware group dubbed DarkSide is suspected to be behind the attack on Colonia Pipeline in the later hours of Thursday last week. But there is no official statement on this note from the fuel supplier. Forensic experts from a third party Cybersecurity firm have been hired to investigate the incident and the state law enforcement agencies have been pressed to service to investigate the indulgence of any state funded actor in the attack.

 

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Naveen Goud
Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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