Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Attack Highlights Alarming Security Vulnerabilities In Critical Infrastructure
One of the top U.S. fuel pipeline operators had to shutter its network this weekend due to a nasty ransomware attack. This effectively shut down approximately half of the East Coast’s fuel for both air and ground transportation. Though home heating oil prices are not expected to increase as a result, this does raise concerns about how vulnerable U.S. critical infrastructure is after seeing how disruptive this attack was.
Colonial Pipeline is one of the largest pipeline operators in the United States, with over 5,500 miles of pipe delivering 100 million gallons of fuel across 14 different states and directly serving seven airports. The network, which you can see below, spans from New Jersey down into Texas and could be considered a proverbial "jugular of infrastructure in the United States,” according to Amy Myers Jaffe, research professor and managing director of the Climate Policy Lab, who spoke to Reuters.


As we have seen with Colonial, essentially any critical infrastructure serving company or organization in the U.S. is at risk, as there will always be bad actors who wish to disrupt and damage the United States in some way. It's obviously critical to get serious about infrastructure network security, so that collateral damages from attacks like this are fewer and far between. In any case, let us know what you think of this situation in the comments below.