{"id":557317,"date":"2021-06-08T16:52:54","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T20:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=557317"},"modified":"2021-06-08T16:52:55","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T20:52:55","slug":"colonial-pipeline-ceo-testifies-about-response-to-ransomware-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/colonial-pipeline-ceo-testifies-about-response-to-ransomware-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Colonial Pipeline CEO testifies about response to ransomware attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/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%2Fcolonial-pipeline-ceo-testifies-about-response-to-ransomware-attack%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=557317&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 id=\"attachment_2419085\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2419085\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing one day after the Justice Department revealed it had recovered the majority of the $4.4 million ransom payment the company made in hopes of getting its system back online, Tuesday, June 8, 2021, on Capitol Hill, in Washington. (Graeme Jennings\/Pool via AP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5>OAN Newsroom<br \/>UPDATED 1:46 PM PT \u2013 Tuesday, June 8, 2021<\/h5>\n<p>The CEO of Colonial Pipeline said the May ransomware attack encrypted its systems, in turn, shutting down the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S. While speaking before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Tuesday, CEO Joseph Blount said an employee first reported the attack after finding a ransom note on one of its systems. The note, which is believed to be tied to cyber criminals in Russia, demanded $5 million in exchange for unlocking the company\u2019s files.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had cyber defenses in place, but the unfortunate reality is those defense were compromised,\u201d Blount explained. \u201cThe attack forced us to make difficult choices in real time that no company ever wants to face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company CEO said they immediately shutdown the pipeline to stop the attack from spreading to other networks. The cyberattack resulted in gas shortages across much of the East Coast. Blount then spoke about the company\u2019s decision to pay $4.4 million in cryptocurrency to the hackers to get the pipeline up and running again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made the decision to pay and I made the decision to keep the information about the payment as confidential as possible,\u201d he stated. \u201cIt was the hardest decision I\u2019ve made in my 39 years in the energy industry, and I know how critical our pipeline is to our country and I put the interests of the country first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Justice has since announced they were able to retrieve a majority of the funds paid. Officials confirmed they were able to recover about $2.3 million of those funds. While the FBI still discourages the payment of ransom demands, the DOJ hopes companies coming forward and working with law enforcement will continue to remedy these situations.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Colonial Pipeline Issues Statement Following Announcement by U.S. Department of Justice on Recovery of Cryptocurrency Funds: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FJF2LKuB1l\">https:\/\/t.co\/FJF2LKuB1l<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Nlnpy4wvI9\">https:\/\/t.co\/Nlnpy4wvI9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Colonial Pipeline (@Colpipe) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Colpipe\/status\/1402008331301146624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 7, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Blount sad the company is implementing changes to prevent future attacks. He also expressed gratitude to his employees, law enforcement, federal authorities and the White House for their response to the attack.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are deeply sorry for the impact that this attack had, but we are also heartened by the resilience of our country and of our company,\u201d Blount continued.<\/p>\n<h4>MORE NEWS:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/un-nuclear-watchdog-says-iran-failed-to-provide-answers-on-nuke-program\/\">UN Nuclear Watchdog Says Iran Failed To Provide Answers On Nuke Program<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing one day after the Justice Department revealed it had recovered the majority of the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279664,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-557317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557317","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=557317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}