US fuel crisis fear as cyber gang targets vast pipeline
AMERICA faces fuel pump shortages after a cyber attack on the owner of the country’s largest pipeline.
Hackers DarkSide – believed to be based in a former Soviet republic – took almost 100 gigabytes of computer data, energy firm Colonial revealed.
It said it ‘ proactively took certain systems offline’ – shutting down the supply of 45 per cent of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel to the east coast.
The Colonial Pipeline – linking Texas and New York and with 5,500 miles of pipes – usually carries 2.5million barrels a day. Oil analyst Gaurav Sharma said: ‘Unless they sort it out by Tuesday, they’re in big trouble. The first areas to be impacted would be Atlanta and Tennessee, then the domino effect goes up to New York.’
The ransomware gang – which uses an image of Star Wars villain Darth Vader as its logo – is believed to be demanding money, but the firm has not revealed any details.
DarkSide is made up of veteran hackers from eastern Europe and targets only non Russian-speaking countries.
Cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows
said the pandemic had left Colonial more vulnerable as engineers accessed control systems remotely from home.
‘We’re seeing a lot of victims. This is seriously a big problem now,’ said founder James Chappell.
‘The amount of small businesses falling victim to this is becoming a big problem for the economy globally.’
The US government has issued emergency laws relaxing safety rules on hours tanker drivers can be on the road in a bid to reduce shortages as work is carried out to tackle the hack.
Cybersecurity expert Andrew Rubin said: ‘This could be the most impactful ransomware attack in history – a cyber disaster turning into a real world catastrophe.’