Discussion7.docx

Gaining unauthorized access to a computer or a system is called hacking. Hackers usually try to gain access in to steal sensitive information for personal use or to be used as ransom. This is unethical and in many cases unlawful. Recently the rise of hackers has caused great concern in the cyber security space, with the rise in digitization especially during COVID there has been a rise in cyber security breaches as well. One such well known breach that caused great havoc in and around the southern region of United States of America is the Colonial Pipeline breach (Bambauer, 2020)
In April of 2021, hackers gained access to the colonial pipeline systems by means of an old password to an account that was not in use but was still accessible. It was accessed in the same way that employees would access the colonial pipeline network, remotely. The password was obtained from the dark web from a list of stolen passwords; this may have been a password that the user used in multiple places. Additionally, the colonial pipeline network did not have multi factor authentication. Hackers then went to demand a ransom in cryptocurrency, which prompted immediate reaction from the cybersecurity team of the colonial pipeline to shut down all of its operations.
 This caused the transport of 2.5 million barrels of gasoline per day to come to a halt for few days, causing huge losses for the company as well as causing public inconvenience. Colonial pipeline also paid around $4.4 million in France and to the hackers who had stolen 100 gigabytes of sensitive data from them. The hackers are known to be linked with a Russian group called the dark side; this has warranted action from the U S government to stop perpetrators from accessing key operational computer networks in the US so as to safeguard the country (Mehrotra, Turton, 2021).
Reference
Mehrotra, K., Turton, W. (2021). Hackers Breached Colonial Pipeline Using Compromised Password.Bloomber News. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-04/hackers-breached-colonial-pipeline-using-compromised-password

Bambauer, D E.(2020). Information Hacking. Utah Law Review, no. 4 (August): 987–1007. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=a9h&AN=144574920.