Cyberattack

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Tuesday handed down another set of directives aimed at protecting critical pipelines that transport hazardous liquids and natural gas against cyber attacks. The second security directive, issued two months after the initial orders were put out, requires owners and operators of TSA-designated critical pipelines to implement specific mitigation measures…

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday issued cybersecurity requirements for natural gas and oil pipeline owners and operators in response to the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Co. earlier this month. The directive requires critical pipeline owners and operators to report confirmed and potential cybersecurity incidents to the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure…

Following the six-day shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline Co. after a ransomware attack, a bi-partisan group of U.S. House lawmakers has revived legislation aimed at formalizing federal agencies’ responsibilities for securing pipelines against threats. In addition to codifying the responsibility of both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for…

Natural gas futures gave up ground on Monday as traders mulled waning weather-driven demand and the potential implications of a cybersecurity attack on the largest fuel pipeline in the United States.    The June Nymex contract dropped 2.6 cents day/day and settled at $2.932/MMBtu. July fell 2.6 to $2.978. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. advanced 5.5…

There was no clear end in sight on Monday to the outage stemming from a cyberattack that forced the largest refined products pipeline in the United States offline late last week. Colonial Pipeline Co., a major supplier of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to the eastern United States, said in a statement over the weekend…

A domestic natural gas pipeline was recently forced to shut down operations for two days following a cyberattack that affected control and communication assets on the operational technology (OT) network of a compression facility, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) has set mandatory standards that are enforced to secure the reliability of the nation’s electric grid, but security requirements under the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are voluntary, not mandatory, making natural gas pipelines “the weak link in U.S. national energy infrastructure,” according to the Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA).

Regulation of natural gas pipeline security, currently a responsibility of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), should be shifted to the Department of Energy (DOE), according to FERC Commissioners Neil Chatterjee and Richard Glick.

Several agencies within the federal government are investigating a series of cyberattacks directed at a third-party software system used by several U.S. natural gas pipeline companies, as the software provider looks into restoring data that was lost.