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This week, particularly if you were in the Southeastern United States, you experienced what an oil shortage looks like. Long lines, no gas at your local gas station, and dramatic price increases. What caused it? A ransomeware attack.

Ransomware is a malware that attacks systems by encrypting them, rendering them impossible to read by the owner. The hacker then proposes a ransom to attain the encryption keys that will unlock a customer’s owned data. Pretty insidious, right?

The attack on Colonial Pipeline was one such attack. It was announced today that Colonial is back up and running, but the effects may be felt for a few more days or weeks, as the oil begins to flow again.

For those of you who are interested, check out the CISA site. CISA stands for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. They are responsible for monitoring attack profiles, technical exploits, and other vulnerabilities in the software and hardware we use and make recommendations to public and private organizations on how to protect themselves from potential attack. Here’s the link on the CISA’s guidance on Ransomware: https://www.cisa.gov/ransomware#:~:text=Ransomware%20is%20an%20ever%2Devolving,ransom%20in%20exchange%20for%20decryption

I enjoy reading things like this, particularly when they become news. I hope you enjoy it!

Until next time…

Dave