If ransomware can shut the US energy 'jugular', what might it do to you? The head of Homeland Security talks to Radio Davos

May 21, 2021

ransomware: A bagged nozzle at a pump notifies motorists that it no longer has fuel after a cyberattack crippled the biggest fuel pipeline in the country, run by Colonial Pipeline, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S. May 12, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RC2GEN9BAZ2Z

A bagged nozzle at a pump notifies motorists that it no longer has fuel after a cyberattack crippled the biggest fuel pipeline in the country, run by Colonial Pipeline, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Image: REUTERS/Jonathan Drake

Robin Pomeroy

Podcast Editor, World Economic Forum

Colonial Pipeline attack shut down vast chunk of US oil distribution.
Incident laid bare vulnerability of public services to ransomware hackers.
Radio Davos examines what ransomware is and how it works.
The latest episode also features an exclusive interview with head of US Homeland Security.

At 5.30 in the morning of 7 May, an employee of a company called Colonial Pipeline found a ransom note from hackers on a work computer. By the end of the day, the pipeline that provides roughly 45% of fuel to the East Coast of the United States was shut down and soon people were panic-buying gasoline because of fears how long the stoppage would last.

The pipeline is open again now, but not before the company paid $4.4 million in ransom.

Have you read?

Ransomware is a big, international criminal enterprise, but what exactly is it and what can be done to stop it?

Radio Davos hears from two experts from the World Economic Forum's Centre for Cybersecurity and from Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.

Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Image: WEF/screengrab

For more information on the Centre for Cybersecurity, click here. And from Homeland Security, here.

Useful news stories:

Cyber attack shuts down U.S. fuel pipeline ‘jugular’

Insurer AXA hit by ransomware after dropping support for ransom payments

Colonial Pipeline Paid Hackers Nearly $5 Million in Ransom

Insurer AXA halts ransomware crime reimbursement in France

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