5/10/21 Ransomware Attack Shuts Down a Major Pipeline to the East Coast

We all know that cyber warfare is on the rise, but the Colonial Pipeline's ransomware saga is showing the cost in real time. Persons so far unknown hacked into Colonial Pipeline's business operations systems, and the company shut down the entire 5,500-mile pipeline so it wouldn't get hacked too. The pipeline runs from Texas to New Jersey and feeds 45 percent of the East Coast's energy needs.

Energy experts are already debating how much the attack will add to the cost of gasoline on the East Coast if Colonial doesn't get service set to rights pronto -- say, midweek. But nobody's suffering yet, and Texas refineries plan to keep running on full capacity till the following week. Meanwhile, Colonial is bringing back parts of the pipeline piecemeal.

Even before the attack this weekend, Washington DC was looking into the problem. Last month, the Justice Department started a ransomware task force, and the Department of Homeland Security made ransomware the focus of its first 60-day "cybersecurity sprint" (whatever that is). In the House, the Homeland Security Committee’s panel on cybersecurity held a hearing on ransomware last week, and legislation to help state and local governments fight cybercrime is in the works.

The US is already behind the other global big guys in cybersecurity, and it faces obstacles. Some 85 percent of the country's energy system is owned and managed by private companies -- businesses that can't (and don't really want to) put in the money to do the job as the federal government can. Natch, the government doesn't want to share its cybersecrets with multiple companies in the private sector, either.

Then there are the homegrown threats. If you'll recall, the last blackout on the East Coast started because a length of elevated power line in Ohio sagged into the trees and overheated, and the rest of the grid went down like dominoes.

China and Russia have both made cyberattacks on the United States, as we know. Ransomware is usually carried out by criminals with no other motive but money. Those are the enemies from without.

Tired linesmen and computer wonks, venal politicians (think: Texas freeze), and endless complexity in the ad hoc connections within the energy system are the enemies from within.

Thank goodness it's not a shooting war, but it is a war nonetheless. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/10/colonial-pipeline-cyber-486726?fbclid=IwAR3VzzX6cHDY12VVCuwPA0XOj8ZuOe7HW5s1p-KntuPJUTFgfrBZ8ugPVrM

What do you think needs to happen to make the energy system reliable and safe from hackers?

Will it hinge on adding multiple redundancies in the connections in the grid?

Will the U.S. have to recruit and train an army of computer scientists?