Colonial Pipeline CEO defends his handling of ransomware attack that crippled East Coast fuel supply
CNN
Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount defended his decision to shut down his company's operations and to pay a ransom last month to criminals who locked up its IT systems, telling lawmakers Tuesday his priority was to restore service as quickly as possible.
The company did not have a dedicated ransomware response plan despite spending an average of $40 million annually on cybersecurity, Blount acknowledged, and Colonial paid the ransom without a complete understanding of how deeply the hackers had compromised the company's systems. Even with its data backups, it would have taken days to determine the extent of the damage, Blount told lawmakers. That timeframe, in the face of worsening disruption to the US fuel supply, contributed to Colonial's decision to pay the ransom, Blount said.
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