Significant Ramifications

Zarmeena Waseem is director of cybersecurity education at the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). She said Darkside has managed to significantly impair a major piece of infrastructure within the United States.

“Colonial’s system spans over 5,000 miles between the Northeast and Texas, and provides gas and oil to more than 50 million customers, so any disruption to this system would have significant ramifications,” she said. “DarkSide stated they were interested in money; everyone knows that oil still means money. Consumers are already concerned about gas prices. Stations are limiting gasoline at the pump in cities on the East Coast because they don’t know exactly when they will get another shipment. And, given how much of the pipeline still remains offline, it underlines how far-reaching the consequences of this attack are. There are signs that this breach is much more far-reaching that we currently know.”