One of the country’s largest pipelines was temporarily shut off Friday, heightening concerns over vulnerable critical infrastructure
The operator, Colonial Pipeline, which transports more than 100 million gallons of gasoline and other fuel daily from Houston to the New York Harbor, according to its website, said it learned of the cyberattack on Friday, causing them to pause operations.
This Sept. 16, 2016, file photo shows tanker trucks lined up at a Colonial Pipeline Co. facility in Pelham, Alabama, near the scene of a 250,000-gallon gasoline spill caused by a ruptured pipeline.
“In response, we proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems,” the company said in a statement.
Colonial said it engaged a third-party cybersecurity firm to launch an investigation into the “nature and scope of this incident” and also contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies. CNN has reached out to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for comment.
Colonial said Friday that it’s “taking steps to understand and resolve this issue.”
“At this time, our primary focus is the safe and efficient restoration of our service and our efforts to return to normal operation. This process is already underway, and we are working diligently to address this matter and to minimize disruption to our customers and those who rely on Colonial Pipeline,” the company said.
Colonial, founded in 1962, says it transports about 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast. The pipeline system that spans more than 5,500 miles has two main lines: one for gasoline and another for things like diesel and jet fuel.
