08 May 2021

One More Cyber Attack: Colonial Pipeline Shutdown

The most recent from ZDNet:

By Larry Dignan for Between the Lines May 8, 2021 -- 14:36 GMT (07:36 PDT) | Topic: Security

More > The company delivers refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, home heating oil and fuel for the U.S. Military.

Here's a look at the Colonial Pipeline system affected by the cyberattack.

Colonial Pipeline cyberattack shuts down pipeline that supplies 45% of East Coast's fuel

The attack highlights how ransomware and other cyberattacks are increasingly a threat to real-world infrastructure

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More > 3 hours ago

Cyberattack Forces a Shutdown of a Top U.S. Pipeline Operator

The operator of the system, Colonial Pipeline, said it had shut down its 5,500 miles of pipeline, which takes refined gasoline and jet fuel along the East Coast.

nytimes.com

A cyberattack forced the shutdown of one of the largest pipelines in the United States, in what appeared to be a significant attempt to disrupt vulnerable energy infrastructure. The pipeline carries refined gasoline and jet fuel up the East Coast from Texas to New York.

The operator of the system, Colonial Pipeline, said in a statement late Friday that it had shut down its 5,500 miles of pipeline, which it says carries 45 percent of the East Coast’s fuel supplies, in an effort to contain the breach on its computer networks. . .It said it had contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies. The F.B.I. leads such investigations, but critical infrastructure is the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

> The breach comes just months after two major attacks on American computer networks — the SolarWinds intrusion by Russia’s main intelligence service, and another against a Microsoft email service that has been attributed to Chinese hackers — that have illustrated the vulnerability of the networks on which the government and corporations rely.

While both of those attacks appeared aimed, at least initially, on the theft of emails and other data, the nature of the intrusions created “back doors” that experts say could ultimately enable attacks on physical infrastructure. So far, neither effort is thought to have led to anything other than data theft.

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Reuters

Top U.S. pipeline operator shuts major fuel line after
cyber attack

Colonial Pipeline says it transports 45% of East Coast fuel supply. The company shut down systems to contain the threat after learning of the attack on Friday, ...

24 mins ago

S&P Global

Colonial Pipeline confirms cybersecurity attack,
temporarily ...

Colonial Pipeline has halted all pipeline operations because of a cybersecurity attack, restricting the delivery of refined products from the US Gulf Coast to the ...

26 mins ago

The Washington Post

Ransomware attack leads to shutdown of major U.S.
pipeline system

Colonial's 5500 miles of pipelines carry fuel from refineries on the Gulf Coast to customers in the southern and eastern United States.