Gasoline shortages are decreasing in the United States as about 1,000 gas stations have been replenished with additional supplies and Colonial has resumed operations.
The gasoline shortage that has plagued the east coast of the United States in recent weeks has slowly decreased since Sunday. That news agency reports Reuters. About a thousand stations have received additional supplies, although there are still a few that are threatened with drought. The colony pipeline is recovering from a disrupted cyber attack by the Darkside hacker group. The breach caused the system to shutdown for six days.
The colonial pipeline has been one of the arteries of the American energy grid since the 1960s. It departs from Houston, on the Gulf of Mexico, and travels approximately 9,000 km towards New Jersey. In doing so, it crossed a dozen states. The east coast of the United States depends almost entirely on the pipeline to power it.
Last Wednesday, Colonial was able to resume operations. According to the information provided by the news agency Bloomberg From two insiders, the company was to pay nearly $ 5 million in ransom to the cybercriminals. The FBI is linking the attack to the mass hacking of Darkside, which may operate from Eastern Europe or Russia. After payment, as reported in untraceable cryptocurrencies, Colonial will regain access to its computer systems and be able to once again send 2.5 million barrels of gasoline, diesel and heating oil through the pipeline per day.
The cyber attack prevented millions of barrels of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from reaching fuel tanks across the eastern United States. News agency Reuters He describes it as “the most destructive cyber attack ever.”
