The Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Houston to Linden, New Jersey, supplies the East Coast with 45% of its gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil.
Ransomware locks companies and agencies out of their own data using encryption, essentially holding the organization's information hostage until a ransom is paid and instructions to reverse the encryption are supplied by the attackers in return.
Prices have already seen an upturn due to the easement of many COVID-19-related shutdown protocols, said Brian Bethune, a professor of applied economics at Boston College, and so far, the attack on Colonial is not a driving force.