Admits the head of the largest US pipeline: We paid the ransom for hacking it to turn it into business

Colonial Pipeline, the largest pipeline in America, returned to fuel last Thursday. The pipeline was shut down for nearly a week in a cyberattack by a hacker gang, which led to panic among drivers and a shortage of gas at thousands of US stations.

Now, Joseph Blount, the head of the company that operates the pipeline, admitted for the first time that it was launched after the ransom was paid to the hackers. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he said that on the first day of the attack on the pipeline’s IT system, he realized that the company would have to comply with the demands of those responsible for the attack. They demand a ransom to remove malware and restore system functioning.

Blount said the company did not know how severe the attack was on its system and how long it would take to restore it. Therefore, given the importance of the pipeline, it was decided to pay 4.4 million to hackers Dollars.

I know this is a controversial decision and it wasn’t easy for me. It was not convenient for me to charge Capital Blount said to these people. In such cases, services usually advise against complying with hackers’ requests, as this may encourage further attacks.

The most important pipeline in the eastern United States

Colony pipeline with 9000 branches Kilometers It received fuel from Texas refineries all the way to New York. 45 percent of the gasoline and diesel fuel supplied to the East Coast of the United States passes through the pipeline. After being stopped Work Fuel supplies were disrupted and many drivers panicked, not knowing how long the stop would take. There were long queues at gas stations, and many of them ran out of gas. In North Carolina, stations have run out of fuel as much as 65 percent, in Georgia and Virginia – more than 40 percent.

According to the FBI, the cyber attack was carried out on the pipeline’s operating IT system A group called DarkSide that demanded a ransom. Colonel Beilin initially refused to answer the question whether she was meeting the demands of the hackers.