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Tanks of the attacked colonial pipeline in Woodbine, Maryland
Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA
After the hacker attack on the largest pipeline in the United States, the government in Washington declared a regional emergency on Sunday.
This step addresses the urgent need to ensure "the immediate transport of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and other petroleum products," said the US Department of Transportation.
After the hacker attack, the entire pipeline network of the operating company Colonial was temporarily shut down.
Colonial, based in the state of Georgia, is the largest pipeline operator in the United States.
The Colonial Pipeline is the largest US pipeline in terms of transported volume.
Every day more than 2.5 million barrels (one barrel is 159 liters) of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and other petroleum products flow through the pipelines.
The pipeline runs a good 8,800 kilometers from Houston in the state of Texas to New York on the US east coast and supplies around 50 million consumers.
The regional emergency declaration means that fuel can now be transported by road to the affected states, including Florida, Texas, New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Because even two days after the cyber attack, Colonial has only been able to reopen a few smaller supply lines; the main system was still out of order.
Hackers use blackmail software
According to the company, the attackers used so-called ransomware in the cyber attack.
With such malware, hackers try to lock or encrypt computer systems and extort money from users for releasing the data.
The "Wall Street Journal" reported, citing informed persons, that the pipeline's tax systems were not affected.
In the case of particularly important infrastructure systems, they are generally separated from the rest of the IT networks.
The New York Times wrote that because of the reduced energy demand in the pandemic, it was unlikely that the attack and the associated restrictions on the operation of the pipeline would have immediate consequences.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas called on other companies to be vigilant and protect themselves against blackmail software and other types of cyberattacks.
His ministry is following the incident.
Infrastructure not adequately prepared for cyber attacks
IT security experts have been warning for years that the infrastructure in the West is not adequately prepared for cyber threats.
Hacker attacks on infrastructure such as pipelines or power plants are considered a horror scenario.
So far, however, few cases of successful cyber sabotage have been reported.
The most famous incident was a large-scale power outage in Ukraine in December 2015, which is believed to be the work of Russian hackers.
However, it was only in February that an attempt was made known to chemically manipulate drinking water in a treatment plant in the US state of Florida using a hacker attack.
The proportion of sodium hydroxide was increased more than a hundredfold.
Employees of the plant had noticed the "potentially dangerous" change immediately and reversed it, as the authorities announced at the time.
mfh / AFP / dpa
