As a follow up to our May 10 article, the breach at Colonial Pipeline has caused some major havoc along the US Eastern Seaboard. Initially, it was though there wouldn’t be any gas shortages, as most of the fuel goes into storage tanks, and the US has seen a reduction in energy use due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.
Images have begun flooding social media of people panic buying gasoline. Some images even show people filling large plastic bags full of gas. It has got to the point where the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned consumers to use only cans made for storing gasoline and not plastic bags or other storage devices.
So why the shortage? Even though Colonial has started the process of turning back up the pipeline, it will be a few more days until that supply returns to normal. In the meantime, The Washington Post reports that “a White House task force created to respond to the crisis and the Transportation Department temporarily relaxed fuel transport rules to make it easier to distribute gasoline. Governors in North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Florida also took steps to ease transport rules as they declared states of emergency.” However, there simply aren’t enough truck drivers available to deliver the gas amid the increased demand from the panicked buyers. The average price of gasoline in the US have now reached the $3/gallon mark.
Christopher Krebs, the first director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told U.S. Congress that they were facing a pandemic of ransomware. So, what should your business do to protect itself from an attack like this? Forrester analyst Allie Mellen advises that business should “Outrun the guy next to you,” meaning that you need to have better cyber security than your competition. She suggested some quick wins that you should take include strengthening passwords, testing your breach readiness plan in case of an emergency, and implementing multifactor authentication, which requires two or more levels of verification before a user can sign on to the company’s network.
If you don’t want to lose to the pandemic of ransomware, contact Uzado for advice on how to protect your business.