East coast fuel shortage

[moonshadow]

I realize there aren't too many members here in the southern states, but was wondering if anyone has seen the effects of this fuel shortage?

What blew my mind was how quickly things went from no issue to full blown panic. I was in Boone NC repairing a mixer in a small bakery, I got an email from my boss's boss wanting us to top off our van's fuel every chance we get, no idling engines, etc. I began to hear chatter in the kitchen as the employees started sharing stories of difficulties getting fuel.

I didn't think much of it until I left the site and made my way home. One gas station in Boone had a line plumb out into the road on both sides, the remainder of the gas stations were out of fuel with bags on the pump handles. I had just over a quarter tank, just enough to get home, but not enough to work tomorrow. I figured I'd try Mountain City TN. One gas station had a line out to the road with a cop directing traffic, another had a few cars, but when I hollered out the window to see if they were getting regular, the guy pumping said he only got five cents worth of gas and the pump shut off.

I called my branch manager to make her aware of the situation and obtain authorization to get premium fuel if needed. She said "whatever you need". I stopped at a small fuel station in Damascus VA, no regular, had to pump premium, I had to wait in line for about 15 minutes. I'm wondering how this will effect my planned trip this weekend. They say this thing could drag into next week. My destination this weekend is 186 miles, so it will take about a tank and a half to get there and back. As soon as I got home, I made haste to fill up my two five gallons gas cans to take with us on the trip (it's our anniversary trip, already planned out and paid for). Hopefully the fuel cans won't be needed, but I wanted to have them just in case.

At the Black Diamond market in town, there was a small line, and I suspect they ran out of fuel an hour later. I got my cans filled and topped off Jax. Jenn's car is already full.

I did manage to get the van filled up, but I'm a little concerned about making my rounds. I run through a tank about once every other day at work. It's going to be a real pain in the ass if I have to wait in line every time I have to stop for fuel....

Whatta mess!

Always something...

Fred, how's the situation in South Carolina?

[Fred in Skirts]

It is about the same here is SC.
I don't think it will get better by the week end as everyone is still going to try to fill up their operating again. This is just another destructive mess due to the relaxed travel restrictions the red states have initiated, to try to keep everyone locked down.

[moonshadow]

Well, I was chatting with my neighbor across the street about the situation, he's an 80 year old Veteran of the Cold War, we both agreed that we'd team up, go to Russia and straighten this out once in for all... next week... after Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy...

His wife 'bout fell on the floor laughing!

[Fred in Skirts]

I seriously doubt that would do any good as the Ruskies will not let you in...

They are afraid the two of you would steal state secrets right under their nose and give them to the CIA....(Culinary Institute of America)

[rode_kater]

If this really goes pear shaped, just imagine the smug faces of all the people with electric vehicles.

[crfriend]

Great. Another phony fuel crisis. This'll be, what, the third or fourth time that Big Oil has done this to us?

Time for an other big hike in fuel prices! (Perhaps this'll do for the Stupid Urban Vehicle (SUV)/Chelsea Tractor once and for all.)

[Sinned]

Th last time we had a fuel crisis was 1972/73. Don't remember anything since then. The dangers of connecting everything to the Internot. Why can't critical resources just have their own LAN rather than allowing all and sundry to gain access? There are too many criticals that are vulnerable to the Chinese/Russians/terrorists.

[moonshadow]

Th last time we had a fuel crisis was 1972/73. Don't remember anything since then. The dangers of connecting everything to the Internot. Why can't critical resources just have their own LAN rather than allowing all and sundry to gain access? There are too many criticals that are vulnerable to the Chinese/Russians/terrorists.

The last one I recall hit the southeast pretty bad in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit... some places were reporting fuel cost of up to $6.00 per gallon (in actual 2005 dollars). I believe I saw it over $4.00 in a few places before it settled back down again. Several gas stations ran out then, others couldn't rinse their prices fast enough.

One particular gas station owner was raising hell at the system because he had older style pumps that mechanically wouldn't go higher than $2.99 per gallon. He ranted as he stated he just got his tanks filled and was still making about four cents per gallon while the major national stations downtown were charging upwards of $4.00 or higher.

You know those corporate fuel stations made a killing!

[Uncle Al]

BIG OIL HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS CRISIS!

(Had to find a link that didn't require subscribing or disabling my ad-blocker.)

After Colonial Pipeline shutdown, hacker group 'Darkside is just getting started,' experts say.

"Equinix CEO Charles Meyers provides insight into cybersecurity in the U.S. after
the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack and how to strengthen our digital infrastructure".

"ATLANTA, GA – Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States is under attack. The pipeline stretches from Houston to New Jersey and usually transports more than 100 million gallons of fuel a day.

On Friday, the pipeline was forced to shut down after a gang of hackers, known as Darkside, broke into some of its networks".

"The FBI released a statement confirming that Darkside is responsible for the
hacking at the pipeline."

The FOX NEWS article contains a 'state-by-state' breakdown of how, and where,
this will affect the U.S East Coast states.

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Uncle Al

[crfriend]

Th last time we had a fuel crisis was 1972/73. Don't remember anything since then. The dangers of connecting everything to the Internot.

This is likely down to either a critical failure in a refinery somewhere or plain old greed and profiteering.

Why can't critical resources just have their own LAN rather than allowing all and sundry to gain access? There are too many criticals that are vulnerable to the Chinese/Russians/terrorists.

That's likely one of the reasons why the US is somewhat behaving itself internationally -- because if they didn't, it wouldn't turn into a nuke-fest, the Chinese or the Russians would simply press some buttons and shut the US power grid down. The country would collapse entirely in less than a month and nobody from outside would have to fire a shot.

For those with long memories, James Burke did a magnificent series on the Beeb in the 1980s called Connections that opened with an analysis of what happened in a 1960s blackout that took out most of the Northeast USA (the episode was called The Trigger Effect and did a wonderful job of explaining precisely how precarious technology has made things and how utterly dependent we are on it -- and that was 35 years ago).

[crfriend]

BIG OIL HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS CRISIS!

On Friday, the pipeline was forced to shut down after a gang of hackers, known as Darkside, broke into some of its networks".

That's the first I've heard about that, and my first question for the company running the pipeline is how they got cracked and hostile actors could take control of a national resource. Somebody forgot the most basic thing about computer-networks: critical infrastructure should be air-gapped (and *no* wireless) from even internal corporate systems, and those should be heavily protected from intrusion.

[Uncle Al]

Watch the video clip in the article

The Oil Pipeline MAY be the "Tip of the Iceberg" as Amazon, Walmart, Netflix, etc.,
ALL use the services of this 'Server' company.

What, or who, is next


Uncle Al

[rode_kater]

That's the first I've heard about that, and my first question for the company running the pipeline is how they got cracked and hostile actors could take control of a national resource. Somebody forgot the most basic thing about computer-networks: critical infrastructure should be air-gapped (and *no* wireless) from even internal corporate systems, and those should be heavily protected from intrusion.

It was ransomware, that's all over the news, even here since oddly enough it effects the oil prices on the other side of the pond as well. Apparently the spike is high enough that tankers than would otherwise deliver here go to the east coast of the USA instead because it earns more.

But having critical infrastructure airgapped? How the hell are the people monitoring it going to be able to watch their YouTube videos during their breaks?

Airgapping networks is not profitable and so will not happen unless it's enforced by government regulation. Just joining the networks together it too attractive.

That said, airgapping doesn't solve everything. Even if only your office network is hacked but not the infrastructure, if you can't send bills or remember who your customers are you're still screwed.

[Uncle Al]

A related article linked in the original article.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/col ... -breakdown

Fuel shortages have widened across the East Coast as consumers continue to
panic buy amid the fallout from a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline last
week by Russian ransomware group Darkside.

Watch the video clip Quite interesting, informative and scary

Uncle Al

[crfriend]

I just tried answering Rode_Cater's post and found that I'd written something that some software somewhere Did Not Like and got a big fat ACCESS DENIED shoved at my face. This is nothing that's intrinsic to Skirt Cafe, but rather something that sits "above" it at the hosting layer.

Perhaps we're not supposed to be discussing computer security where it pertains to hostile environments and sensitive targets.

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