The Largest Fuel Pipeline In The US Was Crippled By Ransomware

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JAKARTA - The largest fuel pipeline network in the United States (US), Colonial Pipeline closed its operations due to a cyber-attack by Ransomware. It highlights how cyberattacks are increasingly becoming a threat to real-world infrastructure.

It is known, Colonial Pipeline is a company that delivers refined oil products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, home heating oil, and fuel for the US Military.

Starting when the company discovered that all of its pipelines were inactive, aka offline, then Colonial Pipeline identified on Friday that its IT system had been infected with the Ransomeware virus.

"On May 7, Colonial Pipeline Company learned that it was the victim of a cybersecurity attack. In response, we proactively took certain systems offline to contain threats, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems," the company said, as quoted from ZDNet, Sunday, May 9.

"Upon learning of this matter, a leading third-party cybersecurity firm was involved, and they have launched an investigation into the nature and scope of this incident, which is ongoing. We have contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies," he added.

Ransomware usually works by encrypting a victim's computer, and then demands some form of payment, usually in cryptocurrency and the perpetrator will reward a digital key to recover files.

Sometimes the hackers responsible for the Ransomware actually hand over a decryption key, but it's rare to find them. As a side note, the most famous Ransomware in recent years is WannaCry.

Currently, companies are debating whether they will pay the attackers or not, with most officials and experts siding with never paying.

"Colonial Pipeline is taking steps to understand and resolve this issue. Currently, our main focus is the safe and efficient restoration of our services and our efforts to return to normal operations," said Colonial Pipeline.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that unnamed officials believed that an Eastern European-based criminal group under the name DarkSide was responsible for the pipeline attack.