The author of a 3-year-old audit of the pipeline company hit by a cyberattack threatening East Coast fuel supplies has told The Associated Press that he found.
Any shortcomings by Colonial would be especially egregious given its critical role in the U.S. energy system, providing the East Coast with 45% of its gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products.
Smallwood, a partner at iMERGE and managing director of the Institute for Information Governance, said he prepared a 24-month, $1.3 million plan for Colonial. While iMERGE’s audit was not directly focused on cybersecurity “we found many security issues, and that was put in the report.”
Colonial’s statements Wednesday suggest it may have heeded a number of Smallwood’s recommendations. In addition, it says it has active monitoring and overlapping threat-detection systems on its network and identified the ransomware attack “as soon as we learned of it.” Colonial said its IT network is strictly segregated from pipeline control systems, which were not affected by the ransomware.
Any shortcomings by Colonial would be especially egregious given its critical role in the U.S. energy system, providing the East Coast with 45% of its gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products.
Smallwood, a partner at iMERGE and managing director of the Institute for Information Governance, said he prepared a 24-month, $1.3 million plan for Colonial. While iMERGE’s audit was not directly focused on cybersecurity “we found many security issues, and that was put in the report.”
Colonial’s statements Wednesday suggest it may have heeded a number of Smallwood’s recommendations. In addition, it says it has active monitoring and overlapping threat-detection systems on its network and identified the ransomware attack “as soon as we learned of it.” Colonial said its IT network is strictly segregated from pipeline control systems, which were not affected by the ransomware.
Any shortcomings by Colonial would be especially egregious given its critical role in the U.S. energy system, providing the East Coast with 45% of its gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products.
Smallwood, a partner at iMERGE and managing director of the Institute for Information Governance, said he prepared a 24-month, $1.3 million plan for Colonial. While iMERGE’s audit was not directly focused on cybersecurity “we found many security issues, and that was put in the report.”
Colonial’s statements Wednesday suggest it may have heeded a number of Smallwood’s recommendations. In addition, it says it has active monitoring and overlapping threat-detection systems on its network and identified the ransomware attack “as soon as we learned of it.” Colonial said its IT network is strictly segregated from pipeline control systems, which were not affected by the ransomware.
UpdatedThu, May 13, 2021 at 11:37 am ET
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Colonial Pipeline, the major East Coast pipeline behind the gasoline shortages in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, is coming under scrutiny for its information technology and cybersecurity practices. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
VIRGINIA The major East Coast pipeline behind the gasoline shortages in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic is coming under scrutiny for its information technology and cybersecurity practices.
Colonial Pipeline revealed Friday that it had been the target of a cyberattack on its information technology system. The company said the hackers stole nearly 100 gigabytes of data and encrypted at least a portion of the company s information technology network.