Colonial Pipeline hack attack — Here’s a state-by-state breakdown of gas shortages

PEOPLE in the southeast are panic-buying gas due to the Colonial Pipeline shut down, leading to shortages in several states.

The cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, which transports 45 percent of all fuel consumed on the east coast, has consumers rushing to gas stations.

Read our Gas shortage live blog for the very latest news and updates…

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The pipeline’s functionality has not yet been fully restored after almost six days.

Of the states experiencing outages, North Carolina has been hit the hardest with 14.7 percent of its gas stations dealing with shortages.

Gas stations in Virginia and Georgia are also contending with shortages at 9.6 and 9.4 percent respectively.

About 7.5 percent of South Carolina’s gas stations without gasoline, followed by 3.2 percent in Florida, 1.3 percent in Maryland, 1 percent in Alabama, and 0.7 percent in Tennessee.

Colonial Pipeline said it hopes to have most service restored by the end of the week.

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Experts are warning consumers not to rush to gas stations in a panic and over-purchase, but social media was still flooded with images of people filling their cars and 5-gallon gas cans with gasoline.

Colonial Pipeline shut down on Friday after it was hacked by a Russian crime group DarkSide.

The group targets large corporations, gains access to the victim’s confidential data, and then threatens to leak it if a ransom isn’t paid.

“Our goal is to make money and not creating problems for society,” DarkSide wrote on its website.

Colonial Pipeline has not acknowledged whether it is disregarding the ransom or if it is in the process of paying it.

In response to the attack, President Joe Biden issued a warning to Russia on Monday.

“I am going to be meeting with Putin and so far there’s no evidence from our intelligence people that Russia is involved,” Biden said. “Although there’s evidence that the actor’s ransomware is in Russia, they have some responsibility to deal with them.”

Biden used the attack doubled down on his commitment to addressing cybersecurity in his infrastructure plans. The DarkSide attack is believed to be the largest successful hack of America’s energy infrastructure.

“My administration is also committed to safeguarding our critical infrastructure, much of which is privately owned and managed like Colonial,” Biden continued.

Colonial Pipeline said in a press release that it has delivered about 967,000 barrels of gas to various delivery points in the pipeline that stretches from Texas to New Jersey.

As the largest refined oil pipeline in the U.S., Colonial Pipeline normally transports 2.5 million barrels of gas per day, supplying gasoline and diesel to the east coast and jet fuel to major airports.

“Our primary focus remains the safe and efficient restoration of service to our pipeline system, while minimizing disruption to our customers and all those who rely on Colonial Pipeline,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.