Ransomware shuts down pipeline supplying most of East Coast

 CNBC:

The operator of the country’s largest fuel pipeline, Colonial Pipeline, fell victim to a cybersecurity attack on Friday that involved ransomware, forcing it to temporarily shut down all pipeline operations, the company said in a statement on Saturday.

The firm has hired a third-party cybersecurity firm to launch a probe into the incident and has contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies. The cyberattack has affected some of its IT systems too.

Colonial Pipeline, which transports nearly half of the East Coast’s fuel supply, said it is “taking steps to understand and resolve this issue.”
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Colonial’s system spans over 5,500 miles between Texas and New Jersey, connecting refineries on the Gulf Coast to more than 50 million people in the southern and eastern U.S., according to the company.
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Andy Lipow, president of Texas-based Lipow Oil Associates, said an outage that last one to two days would cause some minor inconveniences and that more widespread impact would occur after four to five days of shutdown.

There could be potential sporadic outages as well if a specific terminal was relying on a delivery today or tomorrow and that is now delayed, Lipow said.

“Unlike the February freeze or hurricane, refineries are still in operation turning crude into gasoline, jet and diesel. They just can’t get it to the terminals,” Lipow said. “An extended colonial pipeline outage will force refiners to reduce their operating rates as inventory in the refinery fills up.”

“While they may not be able to ship it to Colonial, the refineries will certainly be able to continue shipping to the Midwest markets,” Lipow said.
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The Biden administration had been concerned about the operation of the electric grid, but apparently overlooked the vulnerability of pipelines which the President appears to hate.