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Ransomware attacks could reach ‘pandemic’ proportions. What to know after the pipeline hack.


A cybersecurity expert warned U.S. lawmakers last week that the world was on the cusp of a “pandemic of a different variety.”



An "Out Of Service" bag covers a gas pump as cars continue line up for the chance to fill their gas tanks at a Circle K gas station near uptown Charlotte on May 11, 2021, following a ransomware attack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline. (Photo by Logan Cyrus / AFP)


© Logan Cyrus/AFP/Getty Images
An “Out Of Service” bag covers a gas pump as cars continue line up for the chance to fill their gas tanks at a Circle K gas station near uptown Charlotte on May 11, 2021, following a ransomware attack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline. (Photo by Logan Cyrus / AFP)

Christopher Krebs, who formerly headed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security, testified Wednesday before the House Committee on Homeland Security that a form of malware called ransomware has become more prevalent than ever before. Given an ever-widening criminal enterprise and vulnerable digital landscape, he said, critical infrastructure is at risk of debilitating attacks.

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Two days later, Colonial Pipeline, a major fuel pipeline connecting the East Coast, was hit in the largest known hack on U.S. energy infrastructure.

The incident, which instigated a shutdown of the pipeline, a panic-buying spree for gas and a price jump at the pump over the weekend, is one of the latest in a string of crippling ransomware attacks orchestrated by extortionary criminal organizations that mostly operate in foreign safe havens outside the grasps of America’s criminal justice system.

Experts say continued ransomware threats are inevitable, calling on businesses and governments to ramp up efforts to secure their online networks.

“Cybercriminals have been allowed to run amok while governments have mainly watched from the sidelines, unclear on whether cybercrime is a national security-level threat,” Krebs told lawmakers. “If there was any remaining doubt on that front, let’s dispense with it now: too many lives are at stake.”

What’s a ransomware attack?

Ransomware, a malicious computer code that hackers deploy to block an organization’s access to their own computer network to extort a ransom, is one of the most common forms of malware, experts say.

Hackers may barrage employees with phishing emails, convincing the user to download a file or visit an infected…

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