Earlier today — at approximately 5:00 in the afternoon Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 — Colonial Pipeline Company initiated the restart of operations of its main pipeline, which was disrupted by a cybersecurity attack which involved ransomware last week.
Update: Pipeline Operations Resume After Cybersecurity Attack Disruption — But Panic Ensued Anyway
“The FBI confirms that the Darkside ransomware is responsible for the compromise of the Colonial Pipeline networks”, according to this official statement by the the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. “We continue to work with the company and our government partners on the investigation.” DarkSide is a relatively new but very organized professional group of veteran cybercriminals which is reportedly linked to Russia and focused on extorting as much money as possible from their targets via digital means.
“Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal”, according to this official press release from Colonial Pipeline Company. “Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period. Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal.”
Colonial Pipeline Company claims in this official statement to have delivered approximately 967,000 barrels — or approximately 41 million gallons — of refined fuel to various delivery points along its system, which includes delivery into the Atlanta, Georgia; Belton, South Carolina; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Charlotte, North Carolina; Greensboro, North Carolina; Baltimore, Maryland; Woodbury, New Jersey; and Linden, New Jersey markets.
Unfortunately, the damage has already been done.
Panic Ensues
In addition to reports that airlines added fuel stops to what were otherwise nonstop flights to and from the southeastern United States, many service stations in no fewer than 14 states have been depleted of their supplies of refined fuel due to people who allowed panic to set in — and at fuel stations which still have gasoline, prices have increased by at least 30 cents per gallon in areas such as Atlanta…
The stupidity has begun pic.twitter.com/VwYSVCHNbr
— Bryan -follow me on BlueSky (@swimmerbr78) May 11, 2021
…and the panic has taken the form of hoarding fuel — as well as reports of fights breaking out at gasoline pumps in states such as North Carolina.
This is all sheer idiocy, in my opinion.
Summary
Hopefully, this lunacy of people needlessly panicking will subside. The panic is what exacerbated the shortage of refined fuel. I am convinced that without the panic which ultimately ensued, supplies may have been less than usual but still available to those people who truly need them…
…and Colonial Pipeline Company needs to invest its profits in ensuring that its pipelines are as secure as possible so that an incident similar to this one never happens again — and if that is not possible, then investments in decentralized alternative energy sources need to be considered.
This incident is certainly not the first time which the Colonial Pipeline was disrupted.
- The Colonial Pipeline was completely shut down back in September of 2016 because of a leaking main pipeline in Alabama, which resulted in states of emergencies declared by the governors of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee due to a significant disruption of shipments of fuel — and as a result, fuel prices spiked in at least five states in the southeastern United States because of sporadic gasoline shortages.
- During the early afternoon of Monday, October 31, 2016, both pipelines in the area of Shelby County in Alabama were completely shut down when a gasoline pipeline exploded and severely burned at least seven workers, causing people within three miles of the incident to be evacuated — and the incident raised fears of a repeat of the aforementioned sporadic fuel shortages experienced in several states in the southeastern United States.
All photographs ©2021 by Brian Cohen.
