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OPINION MAY 28, 2021 | The Indian Eye 16
Growing Cyber risks to
energy Infrastructure
Cyber-related risks to the energy sector can be minimised by strategic
intelligence gathering on potential threat actors
debopama Bhattacharya
he US fuel pipeline op-
erator, Colonial Pipeline,
Twas hit by a cyber-attack
on May 9 which led to the shut-
down of supplies in states like
Washington, Baltimore and At-
lanta. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) on May 10
confirmed that the ‘DarkSide’
group of hackers was responsi-
ble for the attack.
While analysts pointed out
that a prolonged shutdown
of operations could lead to a
further hike in fuel prices, Co-
lonial Pipeline on May 15 an-
nounced that it had returned to
its normal operations and was
focussed on the safe and effi-
cient restoration of its pipeline
system.
the Fbi has been investi-
gating the darkside group
since last october, af- According to media reports, Colonial Pipelines paid a ransom amount of nearly $5 million
ter repetitive attacks on to the hackers in cryptocurrency
organisations using the dark web. The group of hack- in digital security standards repeat their crimes on other
ers had released a new soft- across the private sector and organisations or more likely on
same modus operandi. re- ware in March that can encrypt better equip federal agencies the same organisation.
ports notes that at least data even faster. The hackers with cybersecurity tools. This incident has once again
work with ‘access brokers’ – cy- As per latest reports mean- exposed the vulnerable nature
90 utilities were impacted, ber-criminal gangs who steal while, Colonial Pipelines paid of critical infrastructure to cy-
including companies like and sell personal data to the a ransom amount of nearly $5 ber-attacks. Given the geo-
highest bidders on the dark million to the hackers in cryp- graphically dispersed energy
brookfield, onedigital and web. tocurrency. Even as the hack- infrastructure, successful cy-
Gyrodata, among others. US President Joe Biden has ers provided the decrypting ber-attacks on it have cascading,
vowed to raise the issue of the tool for restoration of the net- negative effects. Increased digi-
DarkSide brazenly main- pipeline cyber-attack with Pres- works after the payment, the tisation in recent times, under-
ident Vladimir Putin, although company had to reportedly use taken to smoothen the complex
tains a list of all the companies there is no evidence of state its own backups since the de- operational and organisational
it has hacked and the informa- involvement. Biden signed an crypting tool was too slow. The requirements, have paradoxi-
tion on the data it has stolen, executive order (EO) on May FBI stated that paying ransom cally opened up more opportu-
openly on its website on the
13 to encourage improvements encourages cyber criminals to Continued on next page... >>
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