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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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