Drivers in DC, South feel the pinch of gas shortages

Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid $5 million to hackers for decryption key

Gas shortages at the pumps have spread from the South, all but emptying stations in Washington, D.C., following a ransomware cyberattack that forced a shutdown of the nation’s largest gasoline pipeline.

Though the pipeline operator reportedly paid a ransom, restoring service was taking time.

As Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline reported making “substantial progress” in restoring full service, two people briefed on the matter confirmed that the company had paid the criminals a ransom of about $5 million in cryptocurrency for the software decryption key required to unscramble their data network. The people spoke on condition they not be further identified because they were not authorized to divulge the information.

Bloomberg first reported the payment. President Joe Biden, when asked by a reporter Thursday if he had been briefed about the ransom payment, said, “I have no comment on that.”

Biden also said that his administration will try to disrupt the hackers’ ability to operate.

A cyberattack by hackers who lock up computer systems and demand a ransom to release them hit the pipeline May 7. The hackers didn’t take control of the pipeline’s operations, but Colonial shut it down to prevent the malware from affecting its industrial control systems.

The tracking service GasBuddy.com on Friday showed that 88% of gas stations were out of fuel in the nation’s capital, 45% were out in Virginia and 39% of Maryland stations were dry. About 65% of stations were without gas in North Carolina, and nearly half were tapped out in Georgia and South Carolina.

Colonial said Thursday that operations had restarted and gasoline deliveries were being made in all of its markets, but it would take “several days” to return to normal, and some areas may experience “intermittent service interruptions during this start-up period.”

“Our current expectation, based on the conversations between the company and experts at the Department of Energy, is that the vast majority of markets and affected regions are receiving fuel at gas stations for consumers, and will continue to receive more fuel throughout the weekend and into early next week,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. “Hence, getting us closer to return us back to normal.”

A gas station owner in Virginia said panic buying is the problem.

“It’s like a frenzy,” Barry Rieger, who owns a gas station in Burke, Virginia, told WJLA-TV.

Authorities are warning of the dangers of hoarding gas.

In South Carolina, a woman was severely burned after flipping a car that a deputy tried to pull over for a suspected stolen license plate Thursday night. The fire touched off multiple explosions due to fuel “that she was hoarding in the trunk of the vehicle,” a Pickens County sheriff ’s statement said.