US says no evidence Russia was behind pipeline cyber attack

In a statement yesterday, Joe Biden said there was no evidence to suggest the Russian state had anything to do with the cyber attack on the US east coast’s primary fuel pipeline, but added, “there’s evidence that the actors’ ransomware is in Russia.” He said the Kremlin has “some responsibility to deal with this.”

Operator Colonial Pipeline acknowledged on Friday that a ransomware attack had forced it to shut down its east coast line and to isolate some of its computer networks.

Private hacking group DarkSide has said it conducted the attack, and said it was motivated solely by profit and had no interest in causing major disruption.

Colonial expects to restore a full service by Friday and said: “While this situation remains fluid and continues to evolve, the Colonial operations team is executing a plan that involves an incremental process that will facilitate a return to service in a phased approach.”