CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Adam Roosevelt CEO of A.R. International Consulting says 5,500 miles of energy infrastructure is on pause after the U.S fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline shut down its entire network after a cyberattack that occurred on Friday.
“One of the top U.S. oil and gas corporations responsible for providing the east coast with gasoline, which gives energy to a lot of the environment there in terms of businesses,” said Adam Roosevelt, CEO of A.R. Consulting.
Roosevelt says it’s too early to tell who the suspects are, but this type of attack is not uncommon.
“Unfortunately, there are organizations that have not updated their policies and procedures for cybersecurity. They may be using what we call legacy technology, so that simply means the infrastructure is old. Nation-state actors like in China or Russia target this type of infrastructure, specifically to impact us economically and the national security,” said Roosevelt.
An impact that can leave a huge hole in many of our pocketbooks.
“It’s too early to say whether or not there will be any kind of shortages, but the thing that this really does is exacerbates a problem we are already having which is tanker capacity. Getting tankers from places like the Colonial Pipeline to distribution points to retail outlets. The longer this issue keeps the pipeline down, it's likely to have an effect on prices,” said Tom Smythe, Professor of Finance, at Florida Gulf Coast University.
However, Roosevelt says while this can happen to a major corporation like Colonial Pipeline, other businesses no matter the size should protect themselves from any form of cyber attack.
“So you can hire organizations to come in and conduct a vulnerability assessment. Those organizations leverage policies and procedures that provide a baseline for the vulnerability assessment. We need to look at cybersecurity policies, procedures, and technologies that allow us to take the gloves off, and fusing that information into an action plan that allows us to get more aggressive with these attackers,” said Roosevelt.
