How a major oil pipeline fell victim to a cyber attack
11 May, 2021 05:25 AM
6 minutes to read
Colonial Pipeline transports more than 2.5 million barrels of fuel every day. Photo / AP
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By: Matthew Field and James Cook for the Telegraph
It took just two hours for cyber criminals to steal almost 100 gigabytes of data from one of the biggest energy pipelines in the US. On Friday, a shadowy criminal gang, known as Darkside, was able to use that data to lock the computers of the Colonial pipeline, halting the movement of nearly half of the US east coast s fuel supply.
Officials are still scrambling to fully restart operations at Colonial, which transports 2.5m barrels per day of gasoline and other fuels through 5,500 miles (8,850km) of pipelines linking refiners on the Gulf Coast to the eastern and southern US.
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Storage tanks for the 5,500 mile Colonial Pipeline
Credit: AP
It took just two hours for cyber criminals to steal almost 100 gigabytes of data from one of the biggest energy pipelines in the US.
On Friday, a shadowy criminal gang, known as Darkside, was able to use that data to lock the computers of the Colonial pipeline, halting the movement of nearly half of the US east coast’s fuel supply.
Officials are still scrambling to fully restart operations at Colonial, which transports 2.5m barrels per day of gasoline and other fuels through 5,500 miles (8,850km) of pipelines linking refiners on the Gulf Coast to the eastern and southern US.