Cyber attack shuts down oil pipeline

Well yesterday I noticed gas was at $2.99.

Today I see that a supplier of 2.5 million gallons per day of fuel is shut down.

Hang on!

Colonial pipeline has been hit with a ransomware halting their pump stations.
Honestly I’m still baffled how some of our infrastructure is accessible to outside sources. Why would a computer controlling oil flow have an internet connection?

They are working to correct the problem.
Hopefully it will be resolved quickly.

www.bloomberg.com...


On a side note.
This is something that has bothered me for a long time.
Why has the federal government not taken a more active role in stopping fraud and hacking?
My wife is in banking and sees fraud attempts weekly, especially vulnerable are the elderly.
One of my clients makes a billing program for the medical industry.
A competitor of his was hit with ransomware a few years ago and it’s a huge concern for him.

The government exists to protect the people and they are not taking the problem seriously.
Time to write my congressman again.


ETA. This link says the company transports 100 million gallons per day but I don’t know if this is a system wide problem or just in a specific region.

www.ajc.com...

a reply to: Bluntone22

Colonial pipeline has been hit with a ransomware halting their pump stations. Honestly I’m still baffled how some of our infrastructure is accessible to outside sources. Why would a computer controlling oil flow have an internet connection?

Probably to monitor it from somewhere else. Everything is being hit by ransomware, I’ve had a computer that was locked up because of it. It probably found its way in by someone looking at things they shouldn’t on a connected computer. You can throw up all the security in the world, but if the human factor breaks down it isn’t worth anything.

One of my clients makes a billing program for the medical industry. A competitor of his was hit with ransomware a few years ago and it’s a huge concern for him.

*looks at your client*

a reply to: Bluntone22

The scary part is the same type of security is in place for water and gas lines.

Might be a monitoring site thats been hit and while the actual control systems may be ok as they'll possibly be using specialist gear which most ransomware wont have any idea how to touch so since they won't be able to see if theres any problems its safer just to shut it down.

a reply to: underwerks

If a man can make it, another man can unmake it.

There will never be true foolproof cyber security, and most of us have known this for a long time.

The measures most take, are to just make it look like we are trying to not make it too easy for them.

I have a close friend in cypersecurity...intentional hacks these are. He job is to sit at a desk and counter all moves being made on a system. Its like the old game Battleship...two people sitting across from each other countering each others moves. These hack The CISA Act and NIST are another oversight governing laws. are inside jobs or a very relaxed security which can result in fines by the Fed Gov. a reply to: Bluntone22

a reply to: Bluntone22

Yikes ... that could hit the southeastern US and the mid Atlantic coast (and everyone in the Northeast probably too!) with supply issues, and probably price hikes. Not cool.

a reply to: Bluntone22

So what you're saying is that you wish the government had more control over the means of production.

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: Bluntone22

So what you're saying is that you wish the government had more control over the means of production.

Not even close to what I was saying.
The government should do more to track down and arrest the people that are commiting fraud.
They should do more to protect the most vulnerable of society... Seniors.
They should also be looking at anyone hacking and ransoming public utilities like gas and electric.
That should be considered terrorism and homeland security should treat it that way.

There are certain industries that are vital to national security.

a reply to: Bluntone22

I agreeance with you here. But I thought I would add that the Government should stop committing and facilitating fraud for political advancement.

this is happening in all aspects of life. ie. Taking the human away and replacing them with machines, computers, etc.A human is an actual block switch, he has to allow things to get by or not. An electronic device responds to a command to go or not to go, bbbuuuttt, who is giving the command. As long as you've got the right key friend or enemy it will roll.

Why do I feel that somebody clicked on an indian scamware ad?

RIP

a reply to: Bluntone22

Greetings Bluetone22,

Thanks for this post mate.

Well, this is not a good thing to find in the news this morning....nice diversion from AZ voting machine audit drama.

Fully agree with your thoughts in this matter, and for the elderly too.

Here in Oz, the scams are never ending. I get phone calls all the time... sometimes several a day on probable scams.

Maybe it is everywhere now, I thought it was just an Australian thing...

Guessing here, No 1 blame... Russia, or #2... China....

Probably neither did it, but hey you know... never let a good crisis go to waste!

Pravdaseeker

More like Biden pressed the "let's eff with the citizens more!" Button
Let's impeach this piece of trash commie.
What a prick.

a reply to: Bluntone22

I remember when FedEx got ransomwared. There was a decent wave of it a few years back which bolstered the cyber security sector.

Per the connected to internet part, airgapping alone doesn't make you impervious. It's definitely a great part of a companies resilience towards external threats... But a pure airgap is rare. Usually large infrastructures will have intranet. But alas, even a pure airgap isn't full proof. See stuxnet.

Even though it was an anomaly, and took ultra sophisticated (alleged) state actor(s), exponential technological growth means state tech becomes consumer tech. Eventually there will be shortened gaps with hostile innovators forcing faster defensive growth.

And then we have the holy grail for hackers, the possibility however small of solving P vs NP. Should that happen, modern data security is null and void until quantum computing meets quantom entanglement.

😁 It probably even has Wifi and runs on Windows.

Last time this pipeline went off line a few years ago due to a break, we ran out of gas at many stations here in western NC, I think I even started a thread about it at the time.

In fact some stations are already out of gas.

I'm gassed up for the week though.

On a "what a coincidence" note, funny how the grubermint has been predicting high gas prices this summer.

Price of oil remains low but gasoline prices up a dollar - that's like a 40% increase since January 20th...

a reply to: LanceCorvette

Price of oil remains low but gasoline prices up a dollar - that's like a 40% increase since January 20th...

I mean gas prices are still very low if you compare it to the last time it was sub three dollars and factor in inflation.

It being around three now would be like a early 2000s two dollar mark. I think this argument could be made before factoring in COVID inflation.

I dont think this has much to do with the government either, and anyone could have predicted it. Summer prices tend to lift a bit, mix that with a vaccine, restrictions lifting, and a population letting their hair down after cabin fever driving up demand.

Wait till next summer.

I heard about this and was wondering if it was done in order to get people to start talking about this pipeline and its massive leak that nobody seems to care about.

[email protected] in my area of SA, TX.