Colonial Pipeline Update: A Cyberattack Not Blamed on the Russians

May 9, 2021 (EIRNS)—In a sort of “man bites dog” development, the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline was not blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Colonial Pipeline, in an update on May 8, said that the cyberattack it had experienced—and for which it brought in FireEye, which had investigated the SolarWinds hack—was actually just ransomware.

The U.S.’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency statement: “We are engaged with the company and our interagency partners regarding the situation. This underscores the threat that ransomware poses to organizations....”

Otherwise, a White House spokesperson reported: “The federal government is working actively to assess the implications of this incident, avoid disruption to supply, and help the company restore pipeline operations as quickly as possible.” The FBI chimed in: We’re “working closely with the company and government partners. We have nothing additional to share at this time.”

This may be the first significant attack on infrastructure that is not blamed on the diabolical plans of arch-fiend Vladimir Putin.