Photo: AFP.
This morning, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, accused a group of hackers residing in Russia of the cyber attack that forced the closure of operations of one of the largest oil pipeline networks in the country.
The Democrat claimed that there is currently no evidence that Vladimir Putin’s Russian government was involved in the attack, which was reported on May 7, but said there were indications that the malware used was on Russian soil.
So far there is no evidence from our intelligence personnel of Russia’s involvement, although there is evidence that the actors, the ransomware, are in Russia. “They have a certain responsibility,” the president said.
The FBI has identified DarkSide as the group that developed ransomware, that is, software that takes advantage of security flaws to encrypt computer systems and require payment to open them. “The FBI confirms that Dark Side ransomware is responsible for penetrating Colonial Pipeline networks,” she said in a statement.
Colonial Pipeline, the largest operator of the refined product pipelines in the United States, which carries roughly 45% of the spent fuel on the country’s east coast, said it has begun to reopen service “in stages”.
The Georgia-based company ships fuel from the Texas Gulf Coast to the East Coast of the United States via 8,850 kilometers of pipelines, serving 50 million consumers.
At the White House, Biden’s deputy homeland security adviser, Elizabeth Sherwood Randall, confirmed at a news conference that “there is no shortage of supplies.” Sunday’s emergency declaration by the Biden administration allowed the transportation of fuel by road to affected countries.
(Taken from El Huffpost)
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