SECOND TAKE
WASHINGTON POST: Ransomware attacks are a national security threat
The ransomware crisis continues, this time with an attack on a pipeline that carries almost half of the US east coast’s petrol, diesel and other fuels. Colonial Pipeline’s IT services were reportedly breached by an Eastern Europe-based criminal collective called DarkSide. The company responded by shutting down the pipeline itself, partly out of caution that the attackers could have gained access and partly out of necessity: it is impossible to invoice customers when your business network is locked down pending payment to a gang of hackers.
The US transportation department has temporarily relaxed regulations to prevent a supply shortage, and Colonial says it hopes to be “substantially” back online by the end of the week. This may, in other words, end up far from a catastrophe. Yet that says nothing about the damage the next incursion could do. And incursions will continue until Congress and the White House do something to stop them...
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