White House Responds to Colonial Pipeline Attack

The White House has formed an interagency task force in response to the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline. Led by the Energy Department, the group is also comprised of officials from CISA, the FBI, DOT’s Safety and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and the Departments of the Treasury and Defense. On Sunday, DOT issued a “regional emergency declaration” allowing drivers in 17 states and D.C. to work longer hours to transport fuel in the region from Texas to New York to Georgia.

Not mentioned in the task force announcement was TSA, which has responsibility for pipeline cybersecurity, but has been criticized for its past performance. FERC Commissioner Neil Chatterjee repeated his call for DOE to be given jurisdiction over pipeline security.

The attack has been attributed by the FBI to a group dubbed “Darkside,” which Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger described as a “ransomware as a service” operation, in which the malware developers share proceeds from attacks with partners. President Joe Biden said the intelligence community does not have evidence that “Russia is involved although there is evidence that the actor’s ransomware is in Russia.”

Source:

• FCW: White House, CISA React to Pipeline Ransomware Attack
• Nextgov: Energy Department Leading White House Interagency Response to Pipeline Attack
• CyberScoop: US Issues Emergency Declaration Following Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Incident, Relaxing Transport Rules