Colonial Pipeline Shut Down Distribution Because It Couldn’t Bill Customers: Report

Colonial Pipeline reportedly shut fuel distribution down after last week’s cyberattack, not for safety reasons, but because its compromised systems couldn’t keep track of customer bills.

CNN confirmed the news on Thursday, with the network’s Evan Perez saying Colonial “was concerned that they wouldn’t be able to figure out how much to bill customers for fuel that they received.” The report corroborated earlier reporting by Kim Zetter, who noted in an earlier Substack post that the company’s “flow computer” — which records information about fuel distribution — had been compromised.

.@cnn has now confirmed what I wrote 4 days ago, that CP shut down pipeline because they couldn’t bill customers. Per CNN: “The company halted operations because its billing system was compromised…and they were concerned they wouldn’t be able to figure out how much to bill” https://t.co/gEqSjgSNtF

— Kim Zetter (@KimZetter) May 13, 2021

The company seemingly declined to address the issue directly, telling CNN in a statement responding to the claim, “We proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which temporarily halted all pipeline operations and affected some of our I.T. systems.”

The May 7 cyberattack resulted in fuel distribution slowing to a halt in a number of states on the Eastern Seaboard. The company reportedly paid a $5 million ransom to the Eastern European group behind the attack in order to reclaim control of its systems.

Watch above via CNN.

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