Pipeline hack raises cybersecurity concerns in Colorado
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- While states across the East Coast deal with a gas shortage after the Colonial Pipeline Hack, experts in Colorado Springs say cybersecurity will be a bigger issue than gas availability.
The FBI confirmed that the Russian crime group Darkside is responsible for hitting Colonial Pipeline Company with ransomware. The company shut down their pipeline in response, which stretches across 12 states, and caused a gas shortage across the Eastern Seaboard. Though the company reopened the pipeline late Wednesday, it will take time for gas stations across a dozen states to return to normal.
AAA confirmed the gas shortage won't impact Colorado, however, local cybersecurity experts say this points to an alarming trend -- ransomware is becoming more prevalent.
Mark Weatherford, the Chief Strategy Officer for the National Cybersecurity Center in Colorado Springs, said that this is one of the most significant cyberattacks in history because it caused the physical and economic impacts of shutting down the gas supply to so many states.
He said ransomware attacks are very sophisticated as they involve hackers stealing data from companies and charging them to get their data back.
Weatherford said he calls ransomware attacks "quadruple jeopardy" because of the four big ways they can hurt a company. First, the company can be charged for getting their data back in the first place. Second, the hackers can ask for additional payments to avoid publishing that stolen data. Third, CEOs often have to testify in the wake of a large-scale hack, and often lose their jobs shortly thereafter. Fourth, it can cause the company's stocks to take a hit.
As these attacks become more prevalent, Weatherford said there are ways to help prevent an attack on local companies.
The first thing he recommends is backing up all of your data offline, so it's inaccessible to hackers, which lessens their leverage if they do gain access. Weatherford said it's also a good idea to make sure all of your software is up to date, having out-of-date software can leave networks vulnerable to hackers.
The biggest thing Weatherford recommends is to train employees to avoid clicking on suspicious links. He said it sounds simple, but it's the cause of almost every ransomware attack.
"Almost one hundred percent of these cases happen because an employee opened the file that they shouldn't have open, and employee clicked on a link that they shouldn't have clicked on, or responded to an email or a text that they shouldn't have responded to," Weatherford said. "It's just the nature of the world we live in today. We have to be suspicious of everything."
For more information on how to prevent and recover from cyber attacks, click here.
