Infrastructure protectionColonial Pipeline is a Harbinger of Things to Come in Business
Six days after the Colonial Pipeline was attacked by cyberhackers and left millions hanging at the gas pump, they have gained control of their operations once again. But not before the refinery paid their attackers $5 million in untraceable cryptocurrency, according to several news outlets. While the worst is over for now, experts say that it’s a harbinger of things to come and more preparation and alternative modes of supply chain are needed to ward off future attacks.
Six days after the Colonial Pipeline was attacked by cyberhackers and left millions hanging at the gas pump, they have gained control of their operations once again. But not before the refinery paid their attackers $5 million in untraceable cryptocurrency, according to several news outlets.
A Russia-based hacking group called DarkSide has claimed responsibility for the destabilizing attack on the company’s network, who said they were in it strictly for the money. Their actions caused panic and long lines at gasoline pumps in the southeastern portion of the country, reminiscent of the 1973 oil crisis.
The 5,500-mile pipeline is a major fuel supplier of the East Coast, transporting more than 100 million gallons of fuel per day to more than a dozen states from Georgia to New York.
While the worst is over for now, two Arizona State University professors from the W. P. Carey School of Business say that it’s a harbinger of things to come and more preparation and alternative modes of supply chain are needed to ward off future attacks.
Victor Benjamin, assistant professor of information systems, and Dale Rogers, professor of supply chain management, discuss discussed with ASU News what happened, who was responsible, the prevalence of cyberattacks on U.S. companies and how these attacks impact supply chain issues in this country.
ASU News: Many people know about last week’s cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, but who are the folks responsible and what was their motive?
Victor Benjamin: The threat against the Colonial Pipeline is called a ransomware attack. Hackers went into their network system and locked it down and demanded the ransom to release those systems back to Colonial Pipeline.
The group behind this attack calls themselves DarkSide. They are a hacking group located within the darknet that seems primarily financially motivated, according to statements they’ve made. So this isn’t an attack motivated by ideology or for geopolitical reasons. They’re strictly financially driven hackers who targeted the Colonial Pipeline as well as other major firms that they think can pay multimillion-dollar ransoms. It just so happened that the Colonial Pipeline got swept up in this attack. It also wasn’t a targeted attack to shut down infrastructure.
