A silent and bloodless attack, but one that hit the US oil infrastructure straight to the heart. The details of the cyber attack that hit the Colonial Pipeline pipeline network are not yet clear. But it is already evident that the consequences are serious. An 8,850-kilometer web of pipelines was knocked out, guaranteeing nearly half of the US East Coast fuel supplies: in practice, 2.5 million barrels a day supplies of gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products have been paralyzed , directed from the Gulf of Mexico refineries not only to the New York area but also to important centers in the south of the USA, including Atlanta airport, the busiest in the world by number of passengers.
It is one of the most serious cyber attacks ever carried out in history, which exposed the vulnerability of US infrastructure in a merciless way, almost as much as the missile attack suffered by Saudi Arabia at the Abqaiq and Khurais plants in September 2019 did.
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The identity of the hackers is still unknown: it is not known whether they are terrorists – perhaps inspired by environmentalist ideologies – or if there is some foreign power behind the attack, which has been classified as “ransomware”: the cyber pirates they would break into Colonial’s systems, demanding a ransom.
President Joe Biden was informed of the incident on Saturday 9 in the morning, a White House spokesperson said, adding that the government has set to work to restore normal operation of the network as soon as possible and avoid supply problems. The eastern coast of the USA can be easily supplied on international markets, increasing imports. But there could be major repercussions on prices. And even the oil markets could be shaken if the affair were not resolved quickly.
The attack took place on the evening of Friday 7, but the story was made public almost twenty-four hours later, when Colonial had to communicate that it had blocked “some systems to contain the threat”. The sabotage “temporarily stopped all operations of the pipelines and affected part of our IT system,” added the company, which was unable to give indications on the times for restoring the network.