Pipeline hit by cyberattack could be online by week's end
NEW YORK (AP) — The operator of a major U.S. pipeline hit by a cyberattack said Monday that it hopes to have service mostly restored by the end of the week.
Colonial Pipeline offered that update after revealing that it had halted operations because of a ransomware attack the FBI has linked to a criminal gang.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — A cyberattack on a major U.S. pipeline that led to a partial shutdown is raising concerns that supplies of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel could be disrupted in parts of the East Coast if the disruption continues.
The Colonial Pipeline transports gasoline and other fuel through 10 states between Texas and New Jersey, delivering roughly 45% of fuel consumed on the East Coast, according to the company.
The Colonial Pipeline company, based in Georgia, said Saturday that it was hit by a ransomware attack and halted all pipeline operations to deal with the threat.
Colonial is in the process of restarting portions of its network. It said Sunday that its main pipeline remained offline, but that some smaller lines were operational. The company has not said when it would completely restart the pipeline.
“The time of the outage is now approaching critical levels and if it continues to remain down we do expect an increase in East Coast gasoline and diesel prices,” said Debnil Chowdhury, IHS Markit Executive Director. The last time there was an outage of this magnitude was in 2016, he said, when gas prices rose 15 to 20 cents per gallon. But the Northeast had significantly more local refining capacity at that time, potentially intensifying any impact.
Meanwhile, the FBI on Monday said the ransomware attack had been carried out by a criminal gang known as DarkSide, which cultivates a Robin Hood...