Hello everyone,
This week’s discussion is on a current event. I will be covering ransomware. Ransomware has been around for more than a decade, but attacks have exploded in the past couple of years (Goodell, et al, 2023). Consumers appeared to be more affected at first, with ransoms in the range of a few hundred dollars, usually payable in bitcoin. But attackers are diversifying their targets and demanding more expensive ransoms from large companies and organizations. The Colonial Pipeline in 2021 had a huge effect on fuel prices on the East coast. The Colonial Pipeline provides about forty-five percent of the East coast fuel Hobbs, 2021). This included gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel and military fuel. It cost Colonial Pipeline almost five million in bitcoin to regain control of the pipeline. This was because the ransomware had infected the network and Colonial Pipeline shut down to prevent it from spreading throughout their system. Although a large portion of the ransom was retrieved, the US government declared a state of emergency and the top law enforcement offices were then directed to get involved. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI and a newly launched Joint Ransomware Task Force collaborated to form the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) (Hobbs, 2021). The JCDC had led the charge in protecting the infrastructure of most pipelines in the US. This has increased the security of their networks to prevent future ransomware attacks from happening. As the thought of infrastructure attacks is detrimental to everyday life, the Colonial Pipeline has put a bigger emphasis on the security of the US infrastructure and its vulnerability. Ransomware will threaten many people and areas of our life. As with any type of attack, knowledge of cyber threats and what to look out for will need to become more prevalent in the future. John References:
Goodell, J. W., & Corbet, S. (2023). Commodity market exposure to energy-firm distress: Evidence from the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. Finance Research Letters, 51, 103329.
Hobbs, A. (2021). The colonial pipeline hack: Exposing vulnerabilities in us cybersecurity. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals.
The Attack on Colonial Pipeline: What We’ve Learned & What We’ve Done Over the Past Two Years | CISA
. Retrieved on 8 August 2023.
