This is an extremely important detail which seems overlooked.
The pipeline did not need to be shutdown because of a danger to infrastructure, it was a corporate management decision to protect the company’s interests.
Colonial used a ransomeware attack on their company to do their own form of retaliatory blackmail on the entire southeast US to get a state level response and avoid the payout.
The above is not a defense of ransomeware, and I understand why Colonial acted as they did/it seems to have worked. They likely would not have gotten state level help had they not shut down the pipeline. But they have a larger level of responsibility for the damage caused by the pipeline shutdown than is being portrayed.
The pipeline did not need to be shutdown because of a danger to infrastructure, it was a corporate management decision to protect the company’s interests.
Colonial used a ransomeware attack on their company to do their own form of retaliatory blackmail on the entire southeast US to get a state level response and avoid the payout.
The above is not a defense of ransomeware, and I understand why Colonial acted as they did/it seems to have worked. They likely would not have gotten state level help had they not shut down the pipeline. But they have a larger level of responsibility for the damage caused by the pipeline shutdown than is being portrayed.