Cybersecurity

by Mike James

As I prepared to set off for Worcester, Massachusetts during the week prior to Pentecost weekend (May 15-16, 2021) I was alarmed to find most of the gas stations in my community were out of gas. I was wondering how far up the east coast this condition would go. Lucky for me, when I picked up my rental car it had a full tank of gas, and once I got north of the outer Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C. the gas stations were operating normally.

But what I want to discuss is what caused the gas stations around me and in many states south of me to run dry of gasoline during the week of May 9-16, 2021. 

The Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Houston to New Jersey, was taken offline by a hacker group known as DarkSide. The group got into the Georgia-based company’s computer servers and encrypted its data, asking for a fee to be paid in order to restore access back to the pipeline.

This is known as a “ransomware” attack. DarkSide also stole a copy of the data to possibly release later publicly if Colonial Pipeline did not pay an additional fee.

This is the biggest known cyberattack on United States (U.S.) energy infrastructure ever. It is not likely to be the last either. 

Lev Simonovich, a vice president at Siemens Energy, specializing in security says, “The problem is real, it’s pretty widespread, and it’s going to take a systemic approach to address it.”

According to Marty Edwards, vice president of operational technology for Tenable, a cybersecurity firm, one problem is there’s no down time in energy technology, which makes it hard to update software to protect against attacks. “You can’t take the pipeline down every Patch Tuesday,” he said, referring to a routine day each month—the second Tuesday—when companies install cybersecurity updates to their systems.

In the last ten years companies have moved away from keeping their operational systems isolated from the Internet and separated from the business systems. “Today the IT and [operational technology] systems are so heavily converged that it’s really difficult to contain a malware infection just to one part of the network,” Edwards said.

Another problem is the effect of rate regulators according to Robert M. Lee, CEO and co-founder of Dragos, a cyber-incident response company. When the utility or provider has a monopoly in the market, the regulator will often cap the rates the company can charge. This in turn affects cybersecurity budgets. “Cybersecurity expenses are heavily scrutinized and very hard to justify in many industries,” Lee said.

So what does all this have to do with the Bible? Well I started thinking as I was driving to Worcester, what if all the gas stations north of me were in the same predicament as the gas stations in Washington D.C. Well I probably would not have gone on my trip. 

And it’s not just cars that are impacted by the Colonial Pipeline. The pipeline also runs fuel to airports like the one in Atlanta, one of the largest airports in the world. What if all their jet fuel stopped flowing? Well a lot of folks would not be traveling by plane either. 

This happened so quickly and suddenly. Just like that the potential for a major shut down of commerce and travel was on the horizon. Obviously, things didn’t shut down. Within a week things got back to normal. But the point I’m trying to make is the suddenness of change. How quickly things can go from normal to crazy within a few days.

I’m sure we are all well aware of this having just begun to come out of what the pandemic has done to us. Maybe that’s why so many people in my local area rushed to the gas stations to buy gas. Just like when they rushed to the grocery stores to buy food and supplies in the first few months after the pandemic began.

In 2 Peter 3:3-4, we are told there will be scoffers in the last days saying that things continue as they always have and asking, where is this promised coming of Jesus? Well some things do continue as they always have, but when the end does finally come many things will be changing. Please keep in mind how quickly things can change. If you are always mindful that the Lord’s return is just up ahead it will keep you focused on what is most important for Christians at any time—seeking first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).

Source: “Danger to Aging Grid Laid Bare by Breach,” by Will Englund, Ellen Nakashima, and Taylor Telford, The Washington Post, May 11, 2021.