Post-Colonial Hack, American Petroleum Institute Still Opposes Any Fed Cybersecurity Regulations
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When asked what kind of steps the federal government would take to encourage private companies to tighten cybersecurity to prevent attacks, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “That is out of our hands.” “I would say that one of the reasons that we have stood up … and elevated a public-private coordinating apparatus or effort to work with the private sector is because we want to ensure that well-intentioned companies understand what they need to put in place and understand the risks that they’re facing,” Psaki said.
“Because we know, as this is an example of, that it won’t just impact that company, that it can impact ― depending on the entity ― the American public.” But some energy regulators and policymakers said that it doesn’t make sense that the country’s almost 2 million miles of oil and gas pipelines are able to largely avoid federal cybersecurity oversight, unlike the electric grid that is overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“Simply encouraging pipelines to voluntarily adopt best practices is an inadequate response to the ever-increasing number and sophistication of malevolent cyber actors,” FERC Chairman Richard Glick said in a statement. “Mandatory pipeline security standards are necessary to protect the infrastructure on which we all depend.”
Glick called on Congress this week to establish such mandatory cybersecurity standards. However, since the Colonial cyberattack, major fossil-fuel lobbyists, like the American Petroleum Institute, have tried to block such requirements for the country’s energy industry.
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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/colonial-pipeline-restarts-operations_n_609c83cfe4b014bd0ca77b14