I'm not a pipeline expert, but I've been doing computers sense the early 90s. You have a pipe. It has pumps and valves. You have a computer that controls it all. The computer gets hacked. UNPLUG THE DAM COMPUTER... and plug in another one. Then restart the pumps. If they are too incompetent to figure out a workaround then get the hell out of the way and let someone else try.
If there is one thing I've learned with computers its that the guy at the console is god. There is no such thing as taking over from a remote location. Anyone that tells you differently has been watching too many movies. Send real actual human beings out the the pumps, unplug the dam computer and just turn the pump on manually. Yeah, a person might have to watch the pressure and flow rates etc rather than the computer. So the hell what. Get the dam gas flowing again morons.
It's not just the pumps. If that was the issue, then turning them on manually isn't a big problem.
You have the metering, flow indications, pressure readings, leak detection systems, filter differential pressure readings, emergency shutdown valves and relief system indicators, etc... . Also, most pipeline pumps are set up with variable frequency drives.
It's not as easy as simply turning on a pump. Imagine turning on a car... having all the power you need, but not having a gas gauge, no speedometer, basically no way of monitoring the vehicle. You CAN drive like that on a country road... but not on a major highway through a large city. Now imagine having incredible liability in case anything went wrong. That's what the equivalent would be in pipeline terms.
And they can't switch out the computers? They have NO backup systems at all?
If that's the case its just poor planning, and utter incompetence. There is no way you will convince me that if someone with half a brain was turned lose in fucking Microcenter they couldn't completely replace/bypass whatever computer these hackers have access to.
If that is a complete impossibility then the entire system is designed poorly and everyone involved should give back their paychecks to pay the ransom.
Depending on the retention period of their backups.....ransomware now infects systems and sits dormant 6 months before going live sometimes and unless you restore back far enough backups wont work.
I haven't look up the flavor of ransomware used to know if it is the above type or not.
Forgive me but I'm a unix admin. Ransomware and viruses don't really work on FreeBSD. I stopped using winblows like 10 years ago. If these idiots running this pipeline are too stupid to build their control systems on a real OS then we know the problem don't we.
True, but I sadly have seen a lot of Gov't stuff run off windows boxes and servers, although it typically is local municipalities and not anything as large as a pipeline company. I am curious what systems they use.