Gas Prices Are Going to Go Up

I don't even like Biden, but the pipeline hack isn't his fault. It does show our infrastructure is weak and vulnerable, and that breaking it down in the right places would bring the country to its knees, but that's been true for decades, and would fall under the purview of far more than one administration.

You know that, I know that...but do THEY know that?

Wife's workplace has a tank truck coming to fill people's cars for free to get them to come to work.

The pipeline company says it's restarted operatations.

The company shut down its entire operation Friday after its financial computer networks were infected by a Russia-tied hacker gang known as DarkSide, fearing that the hackers could spread to its industrial operations as well.

The shutdown led to widespread gasoline shortages and caused temporary price spikes.

"Colonial Pipeline initiated the restart of pipeline operations today at approximately 5 p.m. ET," the company said in a statement on its website. "Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal."

But... but what about those assholes paying a premium to fill their shopping bags with gasoline?

I heard you had oceanfront property in the Sierras for sale too

"Since the 2016 election, I've been of the opinion that another branch of the military needs to be formed that deals exclusively with cyber crime aimed at US infrastructure. Electric companies have been the targets of foreign based hacks in the past and now the Oil infrastructure has been hit." - Alphaman

we already have a branch (of the Army) that is dedicated to cyber warfare. I work & play there every day, though not in the cyber section. Since hackable US infrastructure is very much a matter of national security, resources could be funneled/missions could be developed to tackle cyber crime. Millions are being poured into developing cyber technology constantly both at Fort Gordon and in Augusta itself through partnerships with local colleges & companies.

I showed up for coffee to a huge line of about 20 cars at the gas station. So being the only person with a brain in floriduh I decided to go to the other entrance. Sure enough there was no line and people were just driving up to the open spots at the pumps while the other idiots waited. I wished my tank wasn't on full.

hoarding isn't going on anymore where I live, because most of the gas stations are now completely out of gas.

that's no excuse! You have plastic trash bags, right?

[ pours gas into a dozen paper Dixie cups ]

I just keep these in the cup holders and use them when necessary. Who's the dummy now?!

I’m what you call Sierras adjacent.

The idea that this was just an attempt to make money doesn't smell right.

My work was hit with a ransomware attack a few years ago. We were advised not to even contemplate paying, because there was no guarantee the attackers would decrypt our data for us. Why would they?

My guess is they make their money off of soft targets: people who either aren't very tech-savvy or who have embarrassing stuff on their computers that they're terrified of having released. Anyone running that kind of operation would have to know there's no way they could actually get millions of dollars out of a major pipeline company.

Which leaves one motive: destabilizing the U.S. And that means a state actor.

Perhaps, but never underestimate Hanlon's Razor, which says "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Some people really do not secure their workstations, or they browse porn on the corporate network, or they download apps and other software without checking whether or not it's safe.

On the other hand, the first rule of being an effective parasite is not to kill the host. When these cybercrooks get a reputation for not unlocking their ransomware, who's going to pay? That said, I don't disagree that it's probably a state agency. Chalking it up to "criminals" could just be an attempt at plausible deniability. Meanwhile Biden has issued an executive order aimed at strengthening cybersecurity.
The president's executive order calls for the federal government and private sector to partner to confront "persistent and increasingly sophisticated malicious cyber campaigns" that threaten U.S. security.
Biden's executive order takes a number of steps aimed at modernizing the nation's cybersecurity:

• Requires IT service providers to tell the government about cybersecurity breaches that could impact U.S. networks, and removes certain contractual barriers that might stop providers from flagging breaches.
• Creates a standardized playbook and set of definitions for federal responses to cyber incidents.
• Pushes the federal government toward upgrading to secure cloud services and other cyber infrastructure, and mandates deployment of multifactor authentication and encryption with a specific time period.
• Improves security of software sold to the government, including by making developers share certain security data publicly.
• Establishes a "Cybersecurity Safety Review Board" comprising public- and private-sector officials, which can convene after cyber attacks to analyze the situation and make recommendations.
• Improves info-sharing within the federal government by enacting a government-wide endpoint detection and response system.

several of these procedures have been in place for many years now already. Obviously most people are unaware of this by design - no sense tipping your hand. Sadly we create many vulnerabilities because of who we are in bed with economically & politically. No president can change this entrenched complex web. Basically the executive order is a moot point, but it doesn't make the situation worse, it just doesn't bring anything tangible to the table that isn't already there under a different name or structure.

It could be both. In the Before Times, I can remember hearing about a local government agency somewhere in the US that got hit by ransomware and had to pay up to get control of their shit back. This pissed lots of folks off, because it would only encourage these types of attacks to continue. The argument the agency made was that if they didn't get their shit up and running quickly, people could die.

A state actor could reach out to a cybercriminal ring and say, "Hey, will give you information, and provide protection for you, if you agree to hit targets in these countries. We don't care what you do, which places you hit, we just want you to go after those folks." Not terribly different than the privateers nations used to employ some centuries ago.

Yep. Russia using a cutout proxy, testing their capabilities. They didn't even bother to go with a group outside their own borders, it's the illusion of deniability.

Guess who was looking for a Cybersecurity manager for a while now?

To be fair, you Canadians will put anything in a plastic bag, including milk.

Give it a few decades.

From my cold dead hands.

I could have probably gotten a bunch from the guys inside, but I never thought about that.

I also learned a long time ago that there is a difference in plastics when I ran out of gas and tried to use a rinsed out soda bottle to get gas back to my car. The gas station employees explained things to me and I bought a gas can.

Actually, they'd probably be quite warm hands. Flaming, some might say.

I wouldn't doubt that you're right. If you want to be optimistic, the order(s) might raise the floor a bit, but raising the ceiling will take a lot more effort.

I guess I've always intuitively known not to carry gasoline in anything other than approved containers.

I was not aware gasoline and substances like it would eat away at certain plastics, or that static would be an issue. I had seen many plastic gas cans when I was a kid, and did not understand plastic differed. It actually wasn't gasoline that clued me in on that. It was actually acetone. It is actually a little silly because I was soaking off fake nails and I used a cup from cough medicine because it was a good size to use, and then the bottom cracked and the acetone spilled all over the place. Duh, the fucking nail tips were supposed to dissolve some too. I get you may not make that connection.

Those plastic bags have got to have been better than a store plastic bag because i am pretty sure you are not going very far at all with a store plastic bag. Not that there would not be some sturdy industrial trash bags that could hold some gasoline for a long time, but I do not think you are getting five steps with a grocery store plastic bag filled with gasoline.

Grocery store bags can't even handle groceries half the time, so that's definitely a no on gasoline.