MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey asked Alabamians not to panic and use good judgment about filling up at the pump in the wake of a major fuel pipeline’s shutdown.
Ivey’s spokeswoman, Gina Maiola, said in an email that the governor spoke Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Energy about the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline in the wake of a recent cyberattack.
Maiola said Ivey was assured the pipeline would be operational in a few days. In the meantime, a shortage has not reached Alabama, and Ivey said an overreaction to the Colonial shutdown would only lead to a shortage.
“Be courteous, only fill up if you need to, and do not fill up multiple containers,” Maiola said. “Governor Ivey urges patience and common sense.”
Texas-based Colonial Pipeline supplies nearly half of the East Coast’s gasoline and jet fuel.
President Biden said Monday he was loosening restrictions on truck drivers to allow more fuel to be transported, to ensure driver’s aren’t impacted at the pump.
A ransomware attack is essentially a software intrusion into a given system, that locks out or limits the operator, and they have to pay the ransom, to regain their control.
Jay Town, a former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama says ransomware attacks will continue to be a problem, until governments and companies bolster their security.
“Ransoms have continued to rise especially as insurers, insurance companies, have started making these policies,” Town said. “A few years ago $30,000 would have been a big ransom, but just in 2020 the United States business paid $340 million in ransoms, now that’s twice as much as the total net amount in between 2013 and 2019, that was paid in ransomware.”
