Fuel pipeline cyber attack results in emergency declaration in 17 states

| May 10, 2021

A US fuel pipeline suffered from a ransomware attack. This attack resulted in the shutting down of the impacted pipeline. This pipeline runs from Texas to New York and benefits multiple states.

From Axios:

What they’re saying: “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 said in a statement.

It did not say what was demanded or by whom.

“In response, we proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems,” Colonial Pipeline added.

“Upon learning of the issue, a leading, third-party cybersecurity firm was engaged, and they have launched an investigation into the nature and scope of this incident, which is ongoing.”

“We have contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies.”

The Department of Energy said in a statement it is coordinating with Colonial Pipeline, the energy industry, states, and interagency partners in responding to the incident.

“DOE is also working closely with the energy sector coordinating councils and the energy information sharing and analysis centers, and is monitoring any potential impacts to energy supply,” the department said.

Axios provides more information on the ransomware attack and on an the emergency declaration issued in 17 states and in the District of Columbia. Also, CBS News identifies a criminal gang as being behind the attack.

Category: Crime

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wireman611

Here in NC gas is up 50 cents. Find em finger em & eff em.

Sparks

As soon as providers got wind of this, some immediately start to gouge for the pure profit and blame it on this. Sons of bitches!

Berliner

In Tacoma, WA the cheapest is Costco at $3.19. I feel for those on the east coast knowing how stations jack up prices.

I remember paying $.23 a gallon during station “gas wars” during high school back in Illinois in 1970.

rgr769

In one of the gas wars in my city in 1966, the price was down to $.179 per gallon. I could fill up my gas guzzling ’58 Olds 88 for less than four bucks.

Berliner

Update! Overnight Costco gas jumped to $3.25. Our refinery is in Anacortes, WA with oil arriving by ship and train.

My high school car was an Opel Kadet so with my $30 weekly paycheck I was rolling in dough. Up at 3 am to pick up and drop off morning newspapers to carriers and grocery stores and fill newspaper machines. After school 2 hours answering phones for missing afternoon papers.

MarineDad61

Gouging at the pumps already underway in Pennsylvania.

On the existing underground tanks.
The magic of illusion (Doug Henning).
https://www.gasbuddy.com/home

NHSparky

PA is already bad enough. Here at Casa de Sparky Western Annex it hasn’t gone up significantly (yet) but until this is over I’m topping off daily just to be on the safe side. I get 4-5 days between hotel and jobsite if I don’t take too many side trips.

KoB

Another glaring example of how much mischief can be caused by some nefarious group. Let this be a wake up call and warning. Get these systems off the internet an onto an intranet.

Warren Buffett and his tanker car/train crews grin.

Haven’t seen a price spike here…yet. But there is a hugely, ginormous tank farm right close by that they keep full. We ran fiber optic cable into there just a few years back.

26Limabeans

“Another glaring example of how much mischief can be caused by some nefarious group”

In 1970 I watched a rocket barrage hit the fuel dump at DaNang AFB.
Burned black smoke for a week. Back then nefarious groups actually
left their mama sans basement and went outside to cause trouble.
Nowadays…not so much.

Bill R.

Another glaring example why watching porn on work computers should be cause for termination

rgr769

My last employer told us anyone caught watching porn on our computers would be fired. Rumor was a couple of people were fired.

NHSparky

I don’t use social media, Netflix, etc., on any company assets.

Also keeps my employer safe in case some sue-happy stalker fucktard and shitty pilot decides to start coming after people for being a butthurt little bitch.

AW1Ed

Sounds like Colonial Pipeline needs a new SysAdmin.

AW1 Rod

They ought to be on an encrypted intranet-based site-to-site VPN, with a dedicated INFOSEC staff!

NHSparky

You’d be amazed the hoops I have to jump through to connect to company assets on my company laptop from home WiFi, to say nothing of hotel Wifi.

Ret_25X

doubtful they are not doing that already.

Ransomware works through forms of social manipulation like phising or whaling.

someone got an email and clicked on a link or attachment to launch this attack.

No sysadmin or VPN will protect your assets from human stupidity.

Keeping the hardware and software secure is hard, but preventing unaware humans from letting the malware in the front door is nearly impossible.

My bet is that some serious cyber awareness and info assurance training is going to take place. For the aware, this will be a painful process because they do not need the training. For those in need of the training, it will likely be unhelpful.

If you don’t know to check the sender, addressing, and follow the “do not open” rule by now, you are hopelessly useless in a digital world.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

I heard on WFTL 850 AM Radio this morning that the group had ties to the russian govt peeps. Next may be the electrical grid but hopefully that could be prevented.

Ret_25X

by Russian gov ties, we mean that they may have been contracted by the gov at some point.

Our government does this as well.

This is an organized crime outfit looking to make easy money, not a sophisticated foreign intel operation.

A Proud Infidel®™

Next thing you know we’ll be hearing Major Moonbat from UC Berzerkely screech that Trump had his Russian cohorts perpetrate this to make Biden look bad, him and/or the liberal media kooks!

Anonymous

And Putin will respond:

assemblerhead

From what I hear, too many of these companies think that upper management needs 24/7 complete access and the ability to override local management, at any time, from any location in the world.

They have set themselves up for disaster.

Sparks

As it was well stated above by KoB, it is time to get the controls of our infrastructure onto non-interconnected intranet systems with no cross ties to the internet whatsoever.

Also, go back and have the old school local controls reinstalled as backups in case of a complete system failure, or in the event, some asswipe at headquarters insisted on access to the intranet, while they still have their internet running in the background using Office, FaceBook or Twitter.

NHSparky

Good luck with that. I’ll just leave that there.

Ret_25X

Not relevant to how these type of attacks occur normally.

These attacks come through your work email in phishing or whaling attacks.

It is not about systems to protect you, but about not being the doofus.

Sparks

Side note, I wonder if all the Prius owners are saying, “See this is why I have an electric car, I don’t need gas!”

Dumbasses just won’t understand.

None so blind and deaf as he who will not see nor hear.

Commissar

Prius use gas anyway. Prius are hybrids, and all electric Prius has been announced It not yet sold.

Prius generates it electric power from its gasoline engine and brakes. The only Prius that can even plug into a electric power source is the Prius Prime. Which accounts for 15% of Prius sales and the Prime is still a hybrid with a very short all electric range.

So I guarantee no Prius owner is saying that even if they don’t know where electricity comes from.

Besides, gasoline and other liquids fossil fuels account for less than 0.5% of electricity generation in the US.

A Proud Infidel®™

Okay Super Dummy, whatever you say.

SFC D

Given your track record on promises and guarantees, you probably shouldn’t even guarantee a successful sunrise.

A Proud Infidel®™

I don’t think that he could even pick his own nose without setting a fire alarm off!

Poetrooper

The operative term in Lar’s comment is “liquid” in reference to fossil fuels for generating electricity.

Factor in coal and natural gas and it’s a whole different story…

Commissar

We are talking about the Colonial pipeline…which is a refined fuel pipeline so liquid fuels is what is relevant to the discussion.

Poetrooper

If you knew how to write effectively you’d realize that your response did not mention the Colonial pipeline and your assertion was a broad statement about the totality of liquid fossil fuels used in the entire U.S. to generate electricity.

Do they offer remedial writing courses for grad students at your socialist institution?

NHSparky

Dear Dipshit,

Chuck Schumer was on TV in NYC last week pimping “green” electric buses. And he said pretty much what the other mouth-breathers have been saying all along, complete with clean skies full of unicorn fart clouds.

A Proud Infidel®™

And I’m sure that the outfits chosen to manufacture those electric buses will be about as legit as Solyndra!

5JC

My #2 son is a 17C in training. He isn’t sure if he is going to make a career out of it yet or not. The current reup bonuses are maxed out, as most soldiers jump in to private industry or a 3LA as soon as their time is up.

Part of the problem is that you don’t have to be very smart to gum up the works (just like vandals and thieves in RL) but do you have to be smart, studious and disciplined to keep the bad guys out.

Commissar

It was done by a Russian criminal organization.

Almost certainly connected directly with the Russian state despite Putin’s predictable “strong and powerful” denials.

This is particularly likely to be state connected given it being so shortly after Biden increased Russian sanctions.

We will see how it plays out. Regardless of how you think about Biden; one thing is certain…he won’t act like a little cuck bitch when dealing Putin like Trump consistently did.

Biden hates Putin. Trump was a fanboi.

Berliner

First somebody needs to remind President Mumbles who Putin is by speaking slowly and using short words and giving him a 3×5 card so he can refresh his memory after the next summer breeze distracts him.

Commissar

I know who he is. Do you? Since nothing I said gives any indication I don’t, I have to assume you have no clue who he is.

Blaster

I think he said “ President Mumbles” AKA, Biden!

Reread it!

Cptsmith

Yes, Biden is China’s bitch not Russia

A Proud Infidel®™

HEY Major Moonbat, was it done by the same Russians that you say got Donald Trump elected President? You claim to know everything, so just asking for a friend.

Commissar

Yes, and the fact that they tried to help Trump get elected is not a disputed fact. In fact even Putin acknowledges it.

It was also absolutely confirmed in the Mueller investigation.

Poetrooper

“It was also absolutely confirmed in the Mueller investigation.”

Intellectual dyslexia?

rgr769

He lives in a parallel universe where the sky is red and the sun comes up in the West every morning. Commies usually have little connection with reality.

SFC D

“cuck bitch” would be a step up for Biden. He’s a bigger empty-suit political prop than Obama.

NHSparky

Spit the CCP cock out of your mouth before you yammer on about a subject you are wrong about yet again.

Lots of bad actors have it in for us, in case you haven’t noticed.

Jesus, if stupidity were painful you’d need to be on a permanent morphine drip.

5JC

Thanks Commissar for finding out where the hacking group that hacked the pipeline is located. Please contact the FBI right away and let them know. They believe that the group is located in “Eastern Europe, Maybe Russia”. Knowing it is in Russia will help them locate the group.

I’d ask how you figured it out but I like surprises.

Ret_25X

you mean like putting effective sanctions on the Russians, arresting their agents, and running effective cyber ops against them? Is that the “cuck bitch” stuff you have in mind.

BTW, Cho Bi Dien stopped all of that first day in office.

Biden may hate Putin, but Putin is now allied with his Boss and private sugar daddy, winnie the CCP pooh.

You really are an execrable oxygen thief.

Not only do you demonstrate your lack of any useful knowledge daily, you lick up the CCP propaganda all the live long day.

Leave cyber defense to the professionals and stick to two hole licking behind the dumpster behind “Luckie’s”.

Commissar

You never even bothered to check if Trump did those things.

You attributing things to Trump things that were done DESPITE Trump’s efforts to block them.

A Proud Infidel®™

Next thing we know you’re going to be braying that the Russians did it on orders from Donald Trump as soon as you get your opinion from your herders, I mean professors.

Commissar

All these asshats with their knee jerk impulse to defend Putin and the Russian state.

Poetrooper

“All these asshats with their knee jerk impulse to defend Putin and the Russian state.”

As opposed to the only asshat with his kneejerk impulse to constantly defend the Chinese Communists and their Democrat puppets…

Commissar

Nope. I consider China to be a threat to the US but not the dipshit conventional framing I see constantly on this forum.

And part of the reason a China is such a threat is because they are not communist. If they were still communist they would still be a largely agrarian proto-industrial nation living on the edge of economy subsistence.

They are hyper nationalist, economically aggressive and exploitative, and industrialized. That makes them dangerous.

Does this look like communist consumers to you? https://youtu.be/e-JeuqN1FfY

Poetrooper

“And part of the reason a China is such a threat is because they are not communist.”

And yet, in spite of your frequently repeated protestations, they continue to self-define as the Chinese Communist Party.

But compared to you…what the hell do they know about it, hmm? I mean it’s not like they are know-it-all Berkeley grad students, right?

Only Army Mom

I don’t think that word (Communism) means what you think it means. Being hyper nationalist, industrialized, etc. and being Communist are not mutually exclusive.

Also, yes, that video certainly looks like Communism to me, given its’ context of people doing what their government says is right, just, etc. It also is indicative of the reality of every Communist society everywhere, ever. The illusion of freedom – we are making our voices heard on this issue in this way (boycotting!) because the Party said so – and proffering that as freedom of speech.

Now, get the same people to say that H&M has the right to choose where to buy their cotton. Better yet, get them to say the slave labor suppliers are wrong and should be stopped.

Last point – your source is a “newsource” funded by the CCP.

A Proud Infidel®™

I see that you still proudly parade your idiocy for all to see Major Moonbat, now go brake check a gang of Hells Angels on the freeway!

Herbert J Messkit

Hunt them down and kill them

A Proud Infidel®™

I’m sure it’s no accident that it happened just before Memorial Day Weekend. I’m all for the guilty parties being immolated while suspended over rush hour traffic.

Ret_25X

A better response is to ransomware them.

Poetrooper

Or infect all their systems with something like Stuxnet…

26Limabeans

“Tempest” in a teapot?

A Proud Infidel®™

I wish My Ex-Wife and Major Moonbat upon them.

Only Army Mom

API –
this relates to one of the first responses I heard.

NYC not issuing a permit to veterans for a Memorial Day parade…

Chicago cancelling the largest Memorial Day parade in the Nation…

Biden stating we “may be allowed” to gather for July 4th…

Memorial Day is one of, if not the busiest, Holiday weekends on the roads. Prevent people from traveling, because Pandemic!, by cutting the supply of gasoline.

This line of thinking is based on the idea that the timing, consequences and reaction to this crisis is suspect.

Then again, it may simply be a fortuitous coincidence that can be manipulated to serve an agenda, aka, never let a crisis go to waste.

A Proud Infidel®™

It’s no secret that the left is still pushing panic and as much control over peoples’ lives as they can, it’s what they live to do.

PARANAH

Some small towns in NE North Carolina are already out!

MarineDad61

Fat gas hoarders about 2 miles away.
(FB Public photo)
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10222087854964579&set=pcb.10222087856644621

MarineDad61