Signs Of The Times: Cyber Attack On Colonial Pipeline And Two Big Conferences Join Forces

Signs Of The Times: Cyber Attack On Colonial Pipeline And Two Big Conferences Join Forces

Share to Linkedin Visitors to the annual Offshore Technology Conference in Houston walk through the exhibits ... [+] Wednesday, May 4, 2011. More than 65, 000 people and 2, 000 exhibitors representing more than 110 countries attend the four-day conference. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) As if gasoline prices weren't already high enough, a cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline system could cause them to move even higher along the Atlantic Coast and into the Northeast. In a media statement issued late Friday, the Colonial Pipeline Company announced that it had "... learned it [is] the victim of a cybersecurity attack. In response, we proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems. Upon learning of the issue, a leading, third-party cybersecurity firm was engaged, and they have already launched an investigation into the nature and scope of this incident, which is ongoing. We have contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies." As of early Saturday morning, the company said it is "... taking steps to understand and resolve this issue" but does not know how long its system will be shut in. The Colonial gasoline pipeline runs