The federal government has launched new regulations requiring owners of critical pipelines that transport hazardous liquids and natural gas to implement “urgently needed protections against cyber intrusions.”
This was the second time since May that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a cyber security directive aimed at US pipeline operators. It comes in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline hack that disrupted fuel supplies across the southeastern US for days.
DHS said Tuesday’s move was in response to “the ongoing cybersecurity threat to pipeline systems,” Reuters reported.
“The lives and livelihoods of the American people depend on our collective ability to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure from evolving threats,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
The security directive requires critical pipelines to take defensive measures to protect themselves from ransomware attacks and other known threats to IT systems. Pipeline owners must also have a cyber security contingency and recovery plan in place.
In an earlier security directive in late May, immediately following the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack, the DHS began requiring US pipeline operators to conduct a cyber security assessment. Until then, American pipeline companies operated under purely voluntary cyber security guidelines.
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That late-May directive required pipeline owners and operators to report any cyber incidents to the federal government. They also needed a designated cyber security coordinator available 24/7 to work with authorities in an attack.
When DarkSide hackers attacked Colonial Pipeline, they forced it to shut down 5,500 miles of pipeline between Texas and New York for several days, disrupting the fuel supply to large swaths of the East Coast. The hackers also took 100GB of data from the network before locking computers and extorting the company for a ransom payment.
Colonial’s CEO has confirmed the pipeline company paid $4.4 million to cyber criminals who hit it with the ransomware attack.
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