Did The Colonial Pipeline Ransom Embolden Our Enemies? | MSNBC

After a ransomware attack crippled one of America’s most important gas pipelines this week, the group responsible was paid $5 million to get it back online. Former White House Director of Global Engagement under President Obama, Brett Bruen, joins American Voices with Alicia Menendez to discuss the long-term consequences of such attacks and what the U.S. might be doing in retaliation.

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38 comments

  1. This is proof corporate cybersecurity need to improve which guarantees the lesson will be forgotten by next week.

    1. That’s like 40-120K a year for somebody with basic cyber security skills and understanding. Companies don’t want to pay that. I’ve got a degree in that and it’s worthless.

    2. @Temporary Name Maybe consider moving to Washington, DC. Cybersecurity jobs are everywhere.

    3. Won’t happen it takes money from shareholders and upper managements pockets short term

    1. They’ll be crying when the coal runs out and nuclear plants and wind farms hacked, unless they have their own solar array.

    2. @sylkelster Sunlight and wind never runs out which is what Tesla uses, only coal miners have been crying as their dying industry collapses.

  2. I don’t understand how the computers that control the pipeline are anywhere near the public internet. There are a lot of wannabe CIO/CTOs that have a hard time turning their computer on. Sounds like the Experian debacle all over again. Never here this happening at Apple, google, Microsoft, etc.

    1. From what I’ve gathered the operation network wasn’t connected to the administrative network that was hacked. They took down the operation network as a precaution. IDK.

  3. CEOs have been slashing IT support for decades. And outsourcing IT to foreign countries like Russia, China, India. They don’t care

  4. Y’all know what’s funny.
    My mama called her senator, Moscow Mitch, and the nice lady confirmed that Putin sent Trump a jar of Russian chick pea.

  5. BACKUPS! The best way to survive ransomware, malware, or any other attack on data, is to keep regular and complete offsite backups. It’s generally going to be cheaper to back things up than it would be to pay the ransoms. It’s hard to believe that there aren’t already legal requirements for critical infrastructure operators to keep effective backups.

    1. I agree, I have been building PC’s and programming for years.. A BACKUP System would have worked… Format the Drives, Upload the saved, clean version, Restart the System,, Fixed…
      NO 5 MILLION Dollars spent..

    1. especially when the company is the one that attacked itself.

  6. This stuff should not even be on the public-facing internet. Operational stuff needs to be on a private network and Bill payment/invoice systems need to be air gapped from operational systems. There should be no way for an attacker to reach systems in control of any utility.

  7. I’m sure Putin knows exactly who these people are and is getting a cut of the pie in tribute.

    1. A few years back Forbes and Fortune theorized that Putin may very well be the richest man in the world.

  8. Yeah, I can NOT believe they actually PAID this… A drone strike would have solved the problem once and for all… Now, we gonna have every hacker on the planet trying to cash in on OUR weakness…
    This is not a good thing…. Not at all…

  9. I LOVE THE TERM ” LOOKING IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR “. LOL THANK YOU FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUL ENERGY !!!!

  10. I think cyber security needs to become far more aggressive because only weak people get taken advantage of in America should not be looked at as weak any longer unless of course people want it that way

  11. Are taxpayers footing the bill for another billion dollar company?
    We know that the CEOs’ salaries could have covered this ransom

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