US gas prices at 7-yr high as pumps still shut after cyberattack

US gas prices are at a seven-year high in the wake of a major pipeline cyberattack that left thousands of gas stations without fuel.

The national gas price on Monday rose to $3.045 a gallon, the highest since October 2014  as many areas are still recovering from last week's shutdown of Colonial Pipeline, the United States' largest fuel pipeline network.

The Southeast has been hit the hardest by the ransom attack that prevented millions of barrels of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from flowing to the East Coast from the Gulf Coast.
 
On Monday, 11,667 gas stations were without fuel, down from a peak last week of more than 15,000 stations, according to tracking firm GasBuddy. 

Panic buying caused 90% of fuel stations in Washington, DC, to run out as of Monday. Outages in North Carolina fell to about 50%, while shutdown in South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia were under 50%, GasBuddy said.

Colonial Pipeline, the top US fuel pipeline operator, said its lines were fully operational on Monday, but it will take some time for supplies to recover fully from the cyberattack.
 
The closure, which has been the most disruptive cyberattack on record, came just ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend at the end of May, the traditional start of peak-demand summer driving season.

"The Southeast will continue to experience tight supply this week as terminals and gas stations are refueled," said American Automobile Association spokesperson Jeanette McGee. "Over the weekend, gas prices started to stabilize, but are expected to fluctuate in the lead up to Memorial Day weekend."

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North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia saw an average price increase of nearly 20 cents per gallon from the previous week.

DarkSide, the group blamed for attacking Colonial Pipeline systems, has said it recently hacked four other companies. A website it used to communicate went dark last week. 

Websites tied to two other ransomware groups not connected to the Colonial hack also were unreachable in a likely retreat amid the hunt for perpetrators, a researcher with cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, said on Sunday.

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order last week to bolster cybersecurity after the pipeline hacking that caused severe gas shortage and panic buying on the US East Coast.

Over the past year, some 2,400 ransomware attacks have hit American corporate, local and federal offices in extortion plots that lock up victims’ data.

Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said recent cyberattacks “have highlighted what has become increasingly obvious in recent years: that the United States is simply not prepared to fend off state-sponsored or even criminal hackers intent on compromising our systems for profit or espionage.”

Biden signs executive order to bolster US cybersecurity after critical pipeline hacking

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