A cyber ransomware attack crippled the nation’s largest pipeline on the East Coast which now threatens to raise gas prices.
A cyber ransomware attack crippled the nation’s largest pipeline on the East Coast which now threatens to raise gas prices while exposing vulnerabilities in critical U.S. infrastructure. Colonial Pipeline Co, which runs a 5,500-mile pipeline from Linden, N.J., to the Gulf Coast at Houston, Texas revealed in a press release Monday its four primary lines remain offline after corporate computer systems had been compromised. “We are in the process of restoring service to other laterals and will bring our full system back online only when we believe it is safe to do so,” the company said, as smaller lateral lines begin to restart operations. A prolonged shutdown of its four main lines however, which provide gasoline and jet fuel up and down the East Coast and across the South threatens to hike prices as suppliers are forced to pursue costly alternative routes. According to Reuters, the pipeline transports more than 2.5 million barrels of fuel daily, or 45 percent of all fuel consumed on the East Coast. No significant immediate effects were felt as travel remains suppressed amid the coronavirus pandemic, though the longer the pipeline remains out of commission, the impact will grow.
