Pipeline CEO: Ransom payment 'hardest decision' of career

The chief executive of the massive fuel pipeline hit by ransomware last month says authorizing a multi-million-dollar payment to hackers was the right thing to do to bring an end to fuel shortages affecting much of the eastern United States

WASHINGTON -- The chief executive of the massive fuel pipeline hit by ransomware said Tuesday that authorizing a multi-million-dollar payment to hackers was the right thing to do after an attack that prompted a gas shortage in much of the eastern U.S., even as federal authorities have discouraged such transactions. “I made the decision to pay, and I made the decision to keep the information about the payment as confidential as possible,” Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount told the Senate Homeland Security Committee at a hearing about last month’s attack. “It was the hardest decision I’ve made in my 39 years in the energy industry, and I know how critical our pipeline is to the country — and I put the interests of the country first.” Asked how much worse it would have been if the company hadn't paid to get its data back, Blount said, “That's an unknown we probably don't want to know. And it may be an unknown we probably don’t want to play out in a public forum.” Blount's testimony, his first since the May 7 cyberattack that led the pipeline to halt operations, underscored the dilemma facing both the private industry and the federal government as ransomware attacks have proliferated in scale and sophistication. U.S. authorities have cautioned against payments for fear of encouraging additional attacks, but Blount's remarks made clear the enormous economic consequences if ransoms aren't paid and critical infrastructure is shut down.