Colonial Pipeline Hack Raises Worries on Gas Prices
May 10, 2021
This past Friday Colonial Pipeline networks were hacked and caused the facilities to become inoperable. The FBI believes an Eastern Europe hacker group known as DarkSide is responsible for the attack, though they have publicly denied it. Colonial Pipeline is responsible for supplying almost half of the gas on the East Coast and there are rising worries as the shutdown is not coming to an end. It is thought that one day before, the hacker group stole 100gb of data from Colonial Pipeline servers before initiating Friday’s attack.
As a response to the issue the Biden administration loosened regulations for transporting fuel to prevent further disruptions in the industry. Colonial Pipeline is responsible for transporting gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. It is expected that prices at the pump will not rise unless the outage is longer than 3 days, but a prolonged shutdown could have unexpected consequences even on consumers.
