The "hackers" shut down the company's ability to operate the pipeline?
A pipeline, that at one time, was more than likely operated manually, or at least could be operated manually in an emergency.
So, if there's an ability to operate the pipeline manually, to keep the gas flowing, how hard/expensive would it be to set up a new system?
Basically, tell the hackers to pound salt up their a$$, get some folks in the field to monitor and operate the pipeline and then replace the existing system.
It'll be interesting to see if other companies are spending some money for the appropriate safeguards, if there are any, or will just roll the dice to hope that it doesn't happen to the them.
I’m kinda shocked that they paid. If I ever got one of those attacks I’d just wipe everything and start over. I don’t keep anything that important on my internet connected computer. That would not be wise.
The payoff was probably $50M, not $5M. Should not have paid and the special forces should have covertly eliminated the root cause. This country is weak and laughed at by the world, its the citizens fault for allowing it to become this way.
Indistry-wide, billions of dollars have been spent putting automatic control and monitoring systems into place.
Much of the ability to expand and control even larger systems and outlays, such as more customers and their lines, nodes back to main lines and systems, etc., have occurred because automation allows it. More manual systems might not be able to handle a modern workload—certainly not a larger one.
To now reverse all that could cost even more. Were would you get the trained manpower, since automation has been going on for 30-40 years now?
A case in point. I was at a local gas station talking to the young clerk. He mentioned that a tanker should be coming soon and he had to ensure no one parked by the tank hatches.
I asked how he figured out how to tell when his tanks were empty—where’s his stick? He had no idea what I was talking about.
I said, when I was in high school in the early 70s I worked part time pumping gas. We had to take an enormous measuring stick and had to measure how much gas was in the tank every evening, so the boss-man could order a delivery when we’re low.
He said they didn’t do that, the tanks all had sensors that let them computer know when the tanks were low, and would even schedule a delivery when that occurred. He only know when a delivery was coming because the computer would tell him.
I had caught wind that they were unable to regulate the pressure within the system and if that was the case it would make sense in a money way to regain control via extortion and totally reformat and go back to a manual override that can be put into place rather than being vulnerable from future attacks. I see computers as a source for information and any other application for something critical is always a risk....This is why I have two vehicles a Honda Odyssey (2005) and my workhorse 1971 IH pick up still running on points and condenser ....The KISS rule can never be improved upon when it comes to vital items. Amazing how advancements in technology actually makes humans more ignorant ....most have forgotten how to use a shovel/s
Basically, tell the hackers to pound salt up their a$$, get some folks in the field to monitor and operate the pipeline and then replace the existing system
Errrr! Nice try thanks for playing. The pipeline system is 100% on a computerized grid. The hacker compromised the passwords and changed them so they couldn’t do anything to get oil flowing because they shut down not only the primary but the secondary control of the valves. No real manual overide. They owned the pipeline. This can be 100% traced to corporate retards saving a buck for favoring computers over people doing the job. Now it cost them in the worst way.
The major problem is that most major pipelines in this country are remotely controlled from a centralized location using a process known as SCADA.
The flow of product is controlled by these systems. It is not as simple as sending someone out to those control valves and operating them manually. First they wouldn’t have enough people skilled enough to do so. Secondly the probably wouldn’t have enough laptops to handout to connect into those locations physically.
The remote sensors are hooked to to wide area networks and routed to the control center via those networks. It is expensive and sometimes not physically possible to build a private network that only the energy company data traffic is sent on.
I’m betting the hackers got onto the servers that controlled the pipeline thru a phishing attack or something similar. So Colonial had to restore their servers from their backups, check to make sure they weren’t affected, test all of the remote connections to make sure they were fed national. Not a simple task and time consuming.
I worked in that industry so I speak from a position of knowledge and experience. Our infrastructure structure is more vulnerable than anyone realizes.
They can waste 5 million on ransomware but didn’t want to invest in a reliable backup/recovery system?
I would fire the entire IT staff responsible for backups. ALL OF THEM.
Think of a future time when the goal is NOT to test our systems, or make a few quick millions... BUT TO DESTROY THE COUNTRY WITHOUT HAVING TO DROP ONE BOMB...
What will we do then?
Joe Biden probably had the US government pay the off the hackers. He just fires up his money printing presses. Millions, trillions....it doesn’t matter.
None of this makes any sense.
One of my clients provides energy for a large section of the United States. Could they be exploited and subject to hackers? - without a doubt. The amount of automation, networking, etc... keeps everything going. It would take thousands of hours to replicate and get working correctly to bring everything back to pre-hack levels.
only a five-year-old
believes all of this story
I don’t blame them. Now it will be easier to track them and put them in prison.
Hey Billy, I thought you were living in your mom’s basement playing video games. Where did you get the money to buy your own ISLAND!
I know for a fact that our electric grid in the interior of Alaska is a closed network. The only way to get in is physically, or engineers can call and ask permission to look at specific sections, and it times out after an hour.
How unsecured is this stuff anyway? Pretty pathetic if it’s connected to an intranet or internet.
America's enemies know that the USA is very weak and has lost its resolve. They know
that the 2020 election was stolen;The success of this test means that more attacks are coming. Prepare yourself and your family.that the President of the US is a fool, the weak puppet of a cabal whose objective is the destruction of the USA;
that wittingly or unwittingly the US Congress, Supreme Court, FBI, CIA, news media, and education systems are under the control of this cabal; and
that half the US electorate approves of this.
Great civilisations are not destroyed from without, they commit suicide.
BTW, for 5 million dollars, couldn't the company hire computer experts to fix the problem and the hackers be damned?
So Colonial is paying tributes to the Barbary Pirates.
PING!
If the government wants to be serious about ransomware hackers, then they should just quietly remove them from the gene pool. It’s not like anyone would miss them.
The attack on the pipeline is an attack on the United States. The U.S. Government needs to find these hackers and terminate them.