{"id":508392,"date":"2021-05-14T15:06:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T19:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=508392"},"modified":"2021-05-14T15:06:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T19:06:22","slug":"will-the-biden-administration-do-something-about-the-colonial-pipeline-cyberattack-or-is-this-the-new-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-the-biden-administration-do-something-about-the-colonial-pipeline-cyberattack-or-is-this-the-new-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"Will The Biden Administration Do Something About The Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack? Or Is This The New Normal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwill-the-biden-administration-do-something-about-the-colonial-pipeline-cyberattack-or-is-this-the-new-normal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=508392&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1317830767.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>A criminal gang of hackers caused one of America\u2019s largest oil and gas pipelines to shut down for days, and even though the pipeline is operational again, it will take days for gas stations in the affected area to resupply.<\/p>\n<p>As I wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/medias-coverage-of-crises-under-biden-would-look-a-lot-different-if-trump-were-in-office\">yesterday<\/a>, the gas shortages could have been avoided if people just remained calm and only purchased what they needed, when they needed it, but here we are. At least where I live in Northern Virginia, almost every gas station in the area is closed because they ran out of gas. The only two gas stations that were open a couple days ago had massive lines in all directions. At the time of this writing, a gas station in Richmond is charging <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtvr.com\/news\/local-news\/richmond-gas-station-charges-6-99-a-gallon-amid-shortage\">$6.99 a gallon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The shutdown was caused by hacking group DarkSide, the FBI said, who used ransomware on Colonial\u2019s business networks (which weren\u2019t connected to the pipeline) and demanded a ransom to provide the decryption program that would slowly remove the malware. Colonial reportedly paid the ransom of $5 million.<\/p>\n<p>But what will America do in response to this cyberattack? So far, it doesn\u2019t look like much, and that\u2019s worrisome. Most of the response from the Biden administration so far has been focused on whether private companies should pay ransom or not. The FBI discourages ransom payments, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/scams-and-safety\/common-scams-and-crimes\/ransomware\">saying<\/a> that it \u201cdoesn\u2019t guarantee you or your organization will get any data back,\u201d and \u201cencourages perpetrators to target more victims and offers an incentive for others to get involved in this type of illegal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet, this is where we are with the Colonial pipeline. They<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-05-13\/colonial-pipeline-paid-hackers-nearly-5-million-in-ransom\"> reportedly<\/a> paid the ransom. Maybe we\u2019ll find out soon that this was yet another fake news story, but if that were the case, shouldn\u2019t we have known by now? If Colonial didn\u2019t pay, wouldn\u2019t they have said so? I suspect DarkSide might have sent word they hadn\u2019t received any payment, though would we be able to trust the word of these criminals? What would be the reasoning behind letting Americans \u2013 and our enemies \u2013 think that American companies will pay millions in ransom?<\/p>\n<p>There hasn\u2019t been much in the way of encouraging news out of the Biden administration. On Thursday, when Biden finally spoke about the issue, he said his administration wouldn\u2019t rule out a counterattack, insisting the U.S. would pursue \u201ca measure to disrupt their ability to operate.\u201d White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said such an attack would wait on recommendations from U.S. Cyber Command.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, I guess. Those aren\u2019t the strongest statements given the implications of what just happened.<\/p>\n<p>Before that, Biden signed an executive order that directed the Commerce Department to come up with new standards for software vendors that supplied the federal government. This does absolutely nothing to go after DarkSide, but damn it, it <em>sounds<\/em> tough. Plus, Biden received glowing praise from former Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Christopher Krebs, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/former-cisa-chief-christopher-krebs-biden-order-on-cybersecurity\/\">called<\/a> the executive order a \u201cdramatic game change\u201d and said it showed Biden\u2019s \u201ccommitted leadership vision\u201d on cybersecurity concerns. Methinks someone wants a job in the administration.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Biden\u2019s tepid comments about going after DarkSide, his Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, sniped at Americans suffering from the gas shortage by saying if they drove electric cars, it \u201cwould not be affecting you.\u201d His deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies, Anne Neuberger, suggested it was \u201ca private sector decision\u201d for Colonial to pay the ransom.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe if Colonial thought the federal government might go after the hackers or offered any kind of support, it wouldn\u2019t have felt compelled to pay the hackers. We already know the Biden administration is no friend to oil and gas, so why would the company think the administration would help? Or maybe the company just panicked (if Bloomberg\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-05-13\/colonial-pipeline-paid-hackers-nearly-5-million-in-ransom\">report<\/a> is true).<\/p>\n<p>We have no indication that our government is going to seriously go after these criminals, so what\u2019s a private company to do? They can\u2019t just call the police when the criminals are international, and paying a ransom encourages others to seek demands.<\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration\u2019s response, however, doesn\u2019t inspire hope that this kind of thing won\u2019t be an issue in the future. Sure, companies should do what they can to protect themselves, but if our government is just going to let criminals go, what\u2019s to stop this from becoming open season on our country\u2019s infrastructure?<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A criminal gang of hackers caused one of America\u2019s largest oil and gas pipelines to shut down for days, and even though the pipeline is operational again, it will take &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278181,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1317830767.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Will The Biden Administration Do Something About The Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack? Or Is This The New Normal?","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-508392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1317830767.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Will The Biden Administration Do Something About The Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack? Or Is This The New Normal?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}