Posted on 05/11/2021 8:26:13 AM PDT by george76
Gas stations across the East Coast are starting to run out of fuel as one of the biggest petroleum pipelines fights to recover from a cyberattack.
Specific gas stations ranging from Virginia to Florida to Alabama are reported to have run out of gas, and drivers have been surprised to find long lines or no service available. The outages come as people are rushing to the pumps to fill up, causing a spike in gasoline demand.
In five states alone — Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia — gasoline demand rose more than 40% on Monday, said GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan. All five states are served by the Colonial Pipeline, which shut down Friday night as a precaution to evaluate the extent of the damage after hackers breached the company's internal computer networks.
The hack is the most significant, successful cyberattack ever on energy infrastructure in the United States.
Nationally, gasoline demand spiked nearly 20% on Monday compared to the prior Monday, hitting levels that rival Fridays, typically the day of the week with the highest demand, GasBuddy said.
The Colonial Pipeline, which is about 5,500 miles long, is normally responsible for transporting 45% of the East Coast's fuel supply, including 2.5 million barrels of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined products daily. The pipeline hopes to be able to restore service before the weekend.
Virginia and North Carolina saw the highest percentage of gas stations outages, at 7.6% and 4.8% respectively, according to the latest data from GasBuddy. On Monday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency. The order temporarily pauses regulations for vehicle fuels to avoid supply interruptions.
Other states with outages included Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee.
In response to the gasoline shortages, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an emergency fuel waiver Tuesday for states affected by the pipeline shutdown. The action, which waives certain fuel vapor pressure requirements, will last for a full week.
The EPA, along with the Energy Department, are actively monitoring fuel supply shortages and are “considering additional measures to alleviate the impact,” the agency said in a news release.
On Monday, federal authorities confirmed that the DarkSide hacker gang was responsible for the hack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline on Friday, stealing large amounts of data before locking computers with ransomware and demanding payment.
In a statement, DarkSide described themselves as "apolitical" and appeared to apologize for the massive disruptions its attack caused. "Our goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society," the group said.
Track them down, and “terminate with extreme prejudice”.
its 1979 again!!...memories....like the corners of my mind......
Why are there long lines if there is no gas?
Gas is only in the pipeline and not stored anywhere ? D’oh
Gas jumped another 6 cents today. Closing in on 1 dollar per gallon more expensive than when Trump was cheated out of the presidency.
Desperate people likely thinking the fuel trucks Will show up any minute now
Biden voters
The Democrats , never let a crisis go to waste
Thanks cheaters
I have heard of OPEC shortages in the old days of long gas lines under Jimmuh Carter. Do we now add “ransomware shortages” to the lexicon during the Biden era to account for long gas lines?
Democrats approve of crazy joe killing pipelines let them use their feet or the precious green energy they’re so fond of. That leaves more of the good stuff for the red states too. 👍🏻
Time for Gas rationing.
Should we use alternating day Even-Odd Plate Numbers, Political Affiliations or Skin Color?
We are GOING GREEN!! The first substantial step towards fixing our planet and stopping man made Global Warming. This is going to get Wild!
Just wait until the full effect of the current Solar Minimum is in full force, it’s already started and will become colder and colder in the near future.
When it does, I think all the Man Made Global Warming Propagandists should be rounded up, asset stripped and shipped to Venezuela.
Trucks that supply Stores are they still moving ?
“It’s 1979 again”
That’s the plan. More troops to the Middle East! Forget China, get those carriers to the Strait of Hormuz. We must protect our energy lifeline! The unemployed American oil workers can join the navy and go protect Saudi Arabia and that lifeline. Uniparty (R) war mongers gotta love this.
Well, I'm a sysadmin covering 3 datacenters
It can take a while--especially if you do not know where the attack is focused. Servers? Network? Storage?
Then you have to deal with and fix whatever backups may already be infected.
That covers your own site. Are there any external partners / contractors involved? Are they under attack or vulnerable? What steps do we take to correct and prevent this in the future? Merely fixing it and then restarting is not an option if the vulnerabilities remain.
Given that this is a multi-state operation, I would imagine that this is quite complicated, covering multiple organizations/govts/contractors/laws/etc.
The Colonial Pipeline attack comes as the Biden administration works to pass a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan aimed at addressing, in part, America’s critical infrastructure vulnerabilities
They cornered healthcare last dim administration. Time for national gas rationing and government control of the energy sector of our economy next.
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