Top US Fuel Pipeline, Crippled By Ransomware Attack, Days Away From Restart

The attack on the Colonial Pipeline between Houston and New Jersey, which provides nearly half the fuel to the US East Coast, is one of the most disruptive digital ransom schemes ever reported.

America's biggest gasoline pipeline is unlikely to resume significant operations for several days due to a ransomware cyberattack that Washington on Monday blamed on a shadowy criminal network called DarkSide. The attack on the Colonial Pipeline between Houston and New Jersey, which provides nearly half the fuel to the US East Coast, is one of the most disruptive digital ransom schemes ever reported. The privately owned company on Monday said it was working on re-starting in phases with "the goal of substantially restoring operational service by the end of the week." The FBI attributed the cyberattack to DarkSide, a group cyber experts say may be based in Russia or Eastern Europe. Its ransomware targets computers that do not use keyboards in the languages of former Soviet republics, they said.