Saturday, 08 May 2021(YJC)_ A cyberattack forced the temporary shutdown of one of the US' largest pipelines Friday.
A cyberattack forced the temporary shutdown of one of the US' largest pipelines Friday, highlighting already heightened concerns over the vulnerabilities in the nation's critical infrastructure.
The operator, Colonial Pipeline, which transports more than 100 million gallons of gasoline and other fuel daily from Houston to the New York Harbor, according to its website, said it learned of the cyberattack on Friday, causing them to pause operations.
"In response, we proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems," the company said in a statement.
Colonial said it engaged a third-party cybersecurity firm to launch an investigation into the "nature and scope of this incident" and also contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies. CNN has reached out to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for comment.
The attack comes amid rising concerns over the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in America's critical infrastructure following recent incidents, and after the Biden administration last month launched an effort to beef up cybersecurity in the nation's power grid, calling for industry leaders to install technologies that could thwart attacks on the electricity supply.
Your Comment