The largest fuel pipeline company in the United States was forced to bow? Media reported that it had paid a ransom in cryptocurrency to hackers

Source: Wall Street Journal Author: Li Dan

The Colonial Pipeline, which was forced to shut down last week due to a hacker attack, carries 45% of the fuel supply in the eastern United States. Biden said that with the restart of the Colonial pipeline, the fuel shortage in the East will end in a few days.

After hackers cut off important transportation pipelines, Colonial Pipeline, one of the largest oil and gas pipeline operators in the United States, may have been forced to pay a ransom before it could gradually restore supply.

On Thursday, Eastern Time, the media quoted insiders as saying that Colonial Pipeline had paid hackers a ransom of $4 million to $5 million as early as last Friday, May 7, local time, in the form of cryptocurrency with untraceable transactions, just hours after the company was attacked. After the ransom was paid, the hacker provided a decryption tool, allowing the company to restore the network.

If the above news is true, it would be a reversal in the public's impression of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware case, as many media reported earlier this week that Colonial Pipeline had no intention of giving in to cyber extortionists in order to restore the largest fuel pipeline system in the United States.

Colonial Pipeline declined to comment after the news broke. When asked if he knew the company had paid the ransom, US President Biden said "no comment," saying Colonial Pipeline would soon fully restore its fuel delivery capacity, and that fuel shortages on the East Coast of the United States would end in a few days due to the restart of Colonial's pipeline. Billionaire John Catsimatidis told another media outlet that the company had paid the terrorists, and according to his sources, it paid $4 million.

Colonial Pipeline announced after the U.S. stock market closed on Thursday that all of its fuel pipeline systems on the East Coast of the United States have been restarted.

After the news broke during the early trading hours of the U.S. stock market, the decline of international crude oil futures further widened. U.S. WTI crude oil once approached the $63 mark in the afternoon, refreshing the intraday low in three weeks, and the intraday decline exceeded 4.7%. Brent crude oil fell below $66.50 in the afternoon, refreshing the two-week low, and the intraday decline was slightly more than 4%. In the end, both U.S. oil and Brent oil closed down more than 3%, the largest closing decline since April 5. Commentators said that the sharp drop in crude oil was affected by the Indian epidemic, the easing of oil shortages in the eastern United States, and the strengthening of the U.S. dollar during the session.

Wall Street Journal mentioned that due to a ransomware attack, Colonial Pipeline shut down a key transportation pipeline last Friday. This pipeline carries 45% of the fuel supply on the east coast of the United States and transports more than 100 million gallons of fuel per day. On the same day, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that in response to this situation, 17 states and Washington, D.C., entered a state of emergency.

Colonial Pipeline said on Monday that the cyber attack caused the entire pipeline network to be suspended, and the attack caused partial impact on the company's system. The company has regained partial control of the pipeline network and will try to gradually resume operations. It is expected that most services will be restored by the weekend; it is working with many carriers to transport natural gas products to multiple terminals by ship.

On Monday, the FBI confirmed that the attack came from the Russian hacker group DarkSide. The group later claimed responsibility for the incident, saying that the goal was to "make money" and not to "cause trouble" to society. It did not mention the Colonial Pipeline or ask for a ransom. However, some media reported that the hacker group asked for a ransom of $100 million.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday that a major transportation pipeline of Colonial Pipeline has temporarily resumed operation under manual control, and it will take several days to fully restore its transportation system. Colonial Pipeline said on Wednesday that it has made significant progress in restarting the pipeline and has begun to deliver products to most markets. By noon that day, all markets will receive fuel products from the company's system.

However, fuel supply remains limited in many states in the United States.

GasBuddy, an agency that tracks fuel prices, reported on Tuesday that some gas stations in six states, including Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina, were experiencing fuel shortages due to a cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline.

Gas Buddy data shows that about 68% of gas stations in North Carolina are currently out of stock. In three states, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C., about half of gas stations reported supply shortages.

Billionaire John Catsimatidis said on Friday that the Colonial Pipeline should be unblocked by Monday at the latest, a goal Colonial Pipeline mentioned on Monday when it said some fuel lines were back online and it was aiming to resume service by the end of the week.