What with the cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline, see here:
A major oil pipeline that carries more than 100 million gallons of fuel from Houston to Linden, N.J., each day is shut down after the company that owns it was hit with a cyberattack.
Colonial Pipeline, which says it delivers about 45 percent of the East Coast’s fuel supply, shut down its entire pipeline network and some of its IT systems Friday.
It seems like a good idea to look at how pipelines serve as a strategic asset>
Not the first time this has been discussed at Eaglespeak - Sunday Ship History: Big Inch and Little Big Inch from about 14 years ago:
As the U-boats struck, supplies to the refineries dwindled, leading to a crisis of supply:Tankers continued to be the number one target of the U-boats, and shortfalls in oil and oil product deliveries were beginning to seriously worry the oil industry. Oil companies were afraid they would be unable to deliver enough heating and fuel oil for the northeastern states.
In my view, the investigation and prosecution of whoever hacked Colonial needs to be pursued as a national security issue, a major cyber crime at least, and, if a foreign country is found to be involved, something akin to an act of war. If the latter case is true, serious sanctions need to be imposed. As far as Colonial goes, it's good they spotted the glitch, but their cyber game needs to be much better. Let this be a lesson to all our utilities.
Was it the "Big Inch" that was hacked or some other large line ?
ReplyDeleteThe consumer-news outlets are useless on this point,
probably since they are too young to remember its construction as a big deal.