The Sun
SHIPPERS for the Colonial Pipeline claim the company’s communications system is down, sparking fears of another hack.
The reports come as Colonial still reels from a ransomware attack carried out by Russian hacking group DarkSide two weeks ago that caused long lines and drastic gasoline shortages throughout the Southeast.
It was not immediately clear why the system was down, what specifically was causing the issue, or when it would be fixed.
The system allows customers to nominate and make changes to their batches of fuel traveling through the 5,500-mile pipeline, which supplies 45 percent of the East Coast’s fuel.
Shippers say the system has been inaccessible as of Tuesday morning. The issue was first reported on Twitter.
Sources told Reuters the disruption hasn’t yet affected fuel distribution, with barrels continuing to flow on the line.
In a statement to The Sun, Colonial Pipeline confirmed its system was down but said the issues “were not related to a ransomware attack.”
“Our internal server that runs our nomination system experienced intermittent disruptions this morning due to some of the hardening efforts that are ongoing and part of our restoration process,” a spokesperson said.
“We are working diligently to bring our nomination system back online and will continue to keep our shippers updated. The Colonial Pipeline system continues to deliver refined products as nominated by our shippers.”
We are working diligently to bring our nomination system back online and will continue to keep our shippers updated. The Colonial Pipeline system continues to deliver refined products as nominated by our shippers.
— Colonial Pipeline (@Colpipe) May 18, 2021
Eleven days ago, Colonial was rocked by a ransomware attack on May 7 after a hacking group known as DarkSide breached the company’s computer systems and stole more than 100 GB of data.
The hackers didn’t take control of the pipeline operations, however, the Georgia-based company shut off the conduit to prevent malware from affecting industrial control systems.
The pipeline, the largest of its kind in the US, stretches from New Jersey to Texas and transports 2.5million barrels of gas each day.
The shutdown lasted several days before operations were resumed at a limited capacity at 5pm on Wednesday.
The prolonged suspension of operations caused the national average price of gas to surge to a six-year high of $3.04 per gallon and prompted widespread shortages across Virginia, Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas, and Washington DC.
As of Monday, around 50 percent of all gas stations in North Carolina were still suffering from fuel outages, according to data from Gasbuddy.
Meanwhile, 49 percent of all the gas stations in South Carolina are still dry, as are 33 percent of Virginia’s pumps.
“The Southeast will continue to experience tight supply this week as terminals and gas stations are refueled,” Jeanette McGee, an AAA spokesperson, said in a statement Monday.
“Over the weekend, gas prices started to stabilize, but are expected to fluctuate in the lead up to Memorial Day weekend.”
The District of Columbia is currently battling the worst gas shortage, with 70 percent of its stations reporting fuel outages as of Tuesday.
That figure is down from more than 85 percent over the weekend, data shows.
Patrick DeHaan, the head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said the issue may take weeks to rectify.
On Friday, Colonial said it had made “substantial progress” in restoring full service.
The same afternoon, sources revealed that the company had paid DarkSide a ransom of around $5 million to regain access to its servers.
The payment was reportedly made within hours of the hack being carried out.
News of the payment contradicted earlier reports that Colonial wasn’t negotiating with DarkSide and had instead enlisted the services of a top security firm to help recover their systems.
DarkSide operates what’s known as a “ransomware as a service” business model, meaning hackers develop and sell ransomware to other criminals who then carry out attacks.
After their May 7 hack on Colonial, President Joe Biden pledged to crack down on cybercriminals – and within hours DarkSide announced it would be disbanding, citing “pressure” from the US government.
The group’s dark web blog, ransom collection website, and content delivery network were seized while funds from their cryptocurrency wallets were transferred to unknown accounts by unidentified entities, DarkSide said.
“We lost access to the public part of our infrastructure, in particular to the blog, payment server, CDN servers … these servers cannot be accessed and the hosting panels have been blocked,” DarkSide said.
“A couple of hours after the seizure, funds from the payment server [belonging to DarkSide and its clients] were withdrawn to an unknown account.”
Hours earlier, President Biden said during a press conference that he was “in direct communication with Moscow about the imperative for responsible countries to take decisive action against these ransomware networks.”
The attack established the need to improve the cyber defence capabilities of the US, Biden said
He then signed an executive order aimed at strengthening the nation’s cybersecurity defenses.
The order calls for the federal government and private sector to partner to confront “persistent and increasingly sophisticated malicious cyber campaigns” that threaten national security.
Biden said that US Intelligence found no evidence to suggest the Russian government was involved in the hack
This news originally appeared in The Sun.
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