The Southeast has been hit especially hard.
Last week’s cyberattack on a key fuel distribution network has led to critical shortages, emergency orders, and general panic. WaPo (“ Fuel shortages crop up in Southeast, gas prices climb after pipeline hack “) reports: Lines of panicked drivers overwhelmed gas stations in the Southeast on Tuesday, as rising prices fed fears of shortages in the aftermath of a ransomware attack that forced the nation’s largest fuel pipeline offline. […] In Washington, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the Southeast can expect a “crunch” that will take several days to alleviate. “We have gasoline,” she said during a White House briefing. “We just have to get it to the right places. And that’s why I think the next couple of days will be challenging.” My home state of Virginia is among those feeling the crunch and the governor has issued an emergency order. I needed to fill up on the way to work yesterday morning and my usual gas station was roped off; I attributed this to routine maintenance. Fortunately, I was able to fill up without incident elsewhere. She said Colonial Pipeline officials had told her that a decision on a “full restart” could come as soon as Wednesday evening. The Colonial Pipeline system, which moves about 45 percent of the East Coast’s fuel, shut down Friday after hackers thought to be based in the former Soviet Union infiltrated servers and encrypted its data, demanding a fee to restore access. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was at the White House briefing, said American organizations have lost more than $350 million this year as a result of ransomware attacks. “The threat is not imminent,” he said. “It is upon us.” One might question whether it’s wise to have that much control in the hands of a single private entity but it may well be a natural monopoly.
