Cybersecurity Response

On May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company learned it was the victim of a cybersecurity ransomware attack. 

Quickly after learning of the attack, our teams swiftly informed the federal government of the threat, retained a third-party cybersecurity firm to help investigate the incident, and proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat. Thanks to the tireless and around-the-clock efforts of the Colonial team, the guidance of our third-party security experts, and the support of the federal government, we were able to bring all systems back online on May 12 – just five days after the attack occurred. 

This unprecedented attack on U.S. critical infrastructure is not reflective of Colonial Pipeline’s efforts to secure its physical assets or IT systems. 

Colonial Pipeline takes its role in United States infrastructure very seriously, and had numerous cybersecurity protections in place when we were the victim of a criminal attack. While our investigation into this incident is ongoing, Colonial has taken a number of concurrent steps to protect against repeat attacks, while also sharing critical information with federal law enforcement to help protect other companies from similar attacks. We will learn from this experience and look forward to exploring additional ways to partner with the federal government to protect our company and our industry as a whole. 

Colonial Pipeline remains committed to delivering product in a safe, secure and timely manner.

Colonial Pipeline recognizes the critical nature of our system to millions of Americans. We safely deliver approximately 100 million gallons of fuel per day and approximately 36 billion gallons per year to markets across our operational footprint. Our role in the fuel delivery supply chain is critical, and despite our efforts to quickly and safely bring our system back online, panic buying led to fuel shortages and gasoline price increases within certain markets that Colonial serves (as well as some that we do not serve). Colonial does not set the price consumers pay at the gasoline pump, nor do we profit from an increase in gas prices. 

We encourage you to learn more about our pipeline system and our Safety Philosophy here.

We are deeply grateful to our dedicated employees, partners and the U.S. government for their support in the wake of this attack on our company.

Colonial Pipeline would not have been able to respond swiftly to the recent ransomware attack on our company without the immense dedication of our employees and partners. Across the pipeline, the Colonial team, our contractors, and external advisors, worked safely and tirelessly around the clock to get our lines back up and running quickly and safely. We are deeply grateful for their dedicated service and professionalism in the face of adversity. 

Colonial has and will continue to put safety and system integrity first and we will continue to invest resources to maintain safe and reliable operations of our pipeline.