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- Fuel stations in the southeast of the United States have started running dry as prices rose on Tuesday following a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline
- The U.S. fuel pipeline operator is now in its fifth day of suspended operations, and some motorists are beginning to panic-buy
- U.S President Joe Biden’s administration said the pipeline would restart in a few days and urged drivers to refrain from topping up their tanks
- Colonial was shut down on Friday in a massively disruptive hacking event thought to be perpetrated by a criminal organisation known as DarkSide
- Colonial said it is making progress in its recovery efforts and hopes to have a substantial portion of its network up and running by the end of the week
Fuel stations in the southeast of the United States have started running dry as prices rose on Tuesday following a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline last week.
The U.S. fuel pipeline operator — which caters to nearly half the country’s East Coast fuel demand — is now in its fifth day of suspended operations, and some motorists are beginning to panic-buy.
However, U.S President Joe Biden’s administration said the pipeline would restart in a few days and urged drivers to refrain from topping up their tanks.
“We are asking people not to hoard,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters at the White House. “Things will be back to normal soon.”
Colonial was shut down on Friday in a massively disruptive hacking event thought to be perpetrated by a criminal organisation known as DarkSide.
DarkSide is one of several ransomware gangs around the world that extort victims by gaining access to private networks, encrypting files and stealing data. They demand payment to decrypt these files and often ask for additional money not to publish stolen content.
Colonial said it is making progress in its recovery efforts and hopes to have a substantial portion of its network up and running again by the end of the week. It has also taken delivery of an additional two million barrels from refineries, which will be used to boost the restart of operations.
“Markets experiencing supply constraints and/or not serviced by other fuel delivery systems are being prioritised,” Colonial said in a statement.
Still, the outage — which has highlighted vulnerabilities in U.S. infrastructure security — has already started to hurt.
In Atlanta, roughly 30 per cent of fuel stations are without gasoline, according to tracking firm GasBuddy. In Raleigh, North Carolina, 31 per cent were without fuel.
Meanwhile, the American Automobile Association said unleaded prices had hit an average of US$2.99 (roughly A$3.82) a gallon, the highest price since November 2014.
In an attempt to ease the strain on consumers, Georgia suspended sales tax on gasoline until Saturday, while North Carolina declared an emergency.
The federal government has also relaxed rules to make it easier for suppliers to refill storage, including lifting seasonal anti-smog requirements for gasoline and allowing fuel truckers to work longer hours.
Granholm said there is not a shortage but a gasoline supply “crunch” in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Southern Virginia — regions that typically rely on Colonial for fuel.
A news release posted to DarkSide’s website did not directly mention Colonial Pipeline, but said “our goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society.”
The statement also made no mention of how much money the hackers were seeking and U.S. officials said they have not yet been involved in any ransom negotiations.
