On May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline, an American oil pipeline system that originates in Houston, Texas, and carries gasoline and jet fuel mainly to the Southeastern United States, suffered a ransomware cyberattack that impacted computerized equipment managing the pipeline. In response, Colonial Pipeline Company halted all of the pipeline’s operations to contain the attack.Â
With the assistance of the FBI, Colonial Pipeline paid the requested ransom (75 bitcoin or $4.4 million) within several hours after the attack. The hackers then sent Colonial Pipeline a software application to restore their network, but it operated very slowly.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a regional emergency declaration for 17 states and Washington, D.C., to keep fuel supply lines open on May 9. It was the largest cyberattack on an oil infrastructure target in the history of the United States. The FBI and various media sources identified the criminal hacking group DarkSide as the responsible party. The same group is believed to have stolen 100 gigabytes of data from company servers the day before the malware attack
On May 10, The Biden administration invoked emergency powers as part of an “all-hands-on-deck†effort to avoid fuel shortages after the worst-ever cyber-attack on US infrastructure shut down a crucial pipeline supplying the east coast.
The federal transport department issued an emergency declaration on Sunday to relax regulations for drivers carrying gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products in 17 states and the District of Columbia. It lets them work extra or more flexible hours to make up for any fuel shortage related to the pipeline outage.
On May 10, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency and temporarily waived collection of the state’s taxes on motor fuels (diesel and gasoline). In response to panic buying in the Southeast, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on May 12 both cautioned against gasoline hoarding, reiterating that the United States was undergoing a “supply crunch” rather than a gas shortage.
On May 12, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission advised people to “not fill plastic bags with gasoline” or to use any containers not meant for fuel.
Biden signed Executive Order 14028 on May 12, increasing software security standards for sales to the government, tightening detection and security on existing systems, improving information sharing and training, establishing a Cyber Safety Review Board, and improving incident response. The United States Department of Justice also convened a cybersecurity task force to increase prosecutions.
The restart of pipeline operations began at 5 p.m. on May 12, ending a six-day shutdown, although Colonial Pipeline Company warned that it could take several more days for service to return to normal. The pipeline company stated that several markets that are served by the pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the restart.Â
The company also stated that they would move as much gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as safely possible until markets return to normal. All Colonial Pipeline systems and operations had returned to normal by May 15. After the shutdown, the average national cost rose to the highest it’s been in over six years, to about an average of $3.04 a gallon on May 18. The price increase was more pronounced in the southern states, with prices rising between 9 and 16 cents in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia. Around 10,600 gas stations were still without gas as of May 18
On November 4th, 2021, the US Department of State announced a $10 million dollar reward for information related to the attack.