The head of Colonial Pipeline will answer to Congress on June 8 about a ransomware attack on the company system that shut down the supply of gasoline along the east coast last month, triggering significant shortages, long gas station lines, and increased prices.
Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph A. Blount will testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about the May attack, which prompted the company to halt gasoline delivery to 13 states.
Homeland Chairman Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, and the top Republican on the panel, Rob Portman of Ohio, announced the hearing.
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The 5,500-mile pipeline shutdown caused major gas shortages and long lines at stations, partly due to panic buying.
Blount told the Wall Street Journal he learned about the ransomware attack on May 7 when a ransom note was discovered on a control room computer. He authorized paying $4.4 million to the hackers because he did not want to cause long-term disruptions to east coast gasoline supplies, and it was unclear how much of the system had been breached.
In response to the event, lawmakers in Congress are calling for new laws that would require companies responsible for critical supplies to inform the government in the event of a disabling hack.
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Colonial accounts for about 45% of fuel supplies to the east coast.
“The disruption in service led to shortages in gas supplies across the East Coast and price increases for consumers,” Portman said in a statement. “The hearing will examine the need to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and how to strengthen federal coordination and response when attacks on private entities occur.”
