Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. US Government Working to Aid Top Fuel Pipeline Operator After Cyberattack Reuters The White House was working closely withtop U.S. fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline on Sunday tohelp it recover from a ransomware attack that forced the companyto shut a critical fuel network supplying populous easternstates. The attack is one of the most disruptive digital ransomschemes reported and has prompted calls from American lawmakersto strengthen protections for critical U.S. energyinfrastructure from hacking attacks. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the pipeline fix was atop priority for the Biden administration and Washington wasworking to avoid more severe fuel supply disruptions by helpingColonialrestart as quickly as possible its more than 5,500-mile(8,850 km) pipeline network from Texas to New Jersey. "It's an allhands ondeck effort right now," Raimondo saidon CBS' "Face the Nation" program. "We are working closely withthe company, state and local officials, to make sure that theyget back up to normal operations as quickly as possible andthere aren't disruptions in supply." Colonial said on Sunday its main fuel lines remain offlinebut some smaller lines between terminals and delivery points arenow operational. Neither Raimondo nor the company gave anestimate for a full restart date and Colonial declinedfurthercomment on Sunday. U.S. gasoline futures jumped more than 3% to $2.217 agallon, the highest since May 2018, as trading opened fortheweekand market participants reacted to the closure. Colonial transports roughly 2.5 million barrels per day ofgasoline and other fuels from refiners on the Gulf Coast toconsumers in the mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States. Its extensive pipeline network serves major U.S. airports,including Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson Airport, the world'sbusiest by passenger traffic. A Charlotte Douglas International Airport spokesperson saidthe airport had supply on-hand and was "monitoring the situationclosely," adding that the complex is supplied by another majorpipeline as well as Colonial. Retail fuel experts including the American AutomobileAssociation said an outage lasting several days could havesignificant impacts on regional fuel supplies, particularly inthe southeastern United States. During previousColonialoutages, retail prices insoutheastern states have risen substantially. Offices of governors in several of the U.S. states mostvulnerable to fuel shortages - including Tennessee, Georgia andMaryland - were not immediately available for comment. Cybercriminalssuspected While the U.S. government investigation is in the earlystages, a former U.S. official and three industry sources saidthe hackers are suspected to bea professionalcybercriminalgroup calledDarkSide. DarkSideis one of many ransomware gangs extorting victimswhile avoiding targets in post-Soviet states. The groups gainaccess to private networks, encrypt files using software, andoften also steal data. They demand payment to decrypt the files and increasinglyask for additional money not to publish stolen content. In the Colonial attack, the hackers took more than 100gigabytes of data, according to a person familiar with theincident. As the FBI and other government agencies worked with privatecompanies to respond, the cloud computing system the hackersused to collect the stolen data was taken offline Saturday, theperson said. Colonial's data did not appear to have been transferred fromthat system anywhere else, potentially limiting the hackers'leverage to extort or further embarrass the company. Cybersecurity firm FireEye is among those dealingwith the attack, industry sources said. FireEye declined tocomment. Colonial said it was working with a "leading, third-party cybersecurity firm," but did not name the firm. Messages left with theDarkSidehackers were not immediatelyreturned. The group's dark website, where hackers regularly postdata about victims, made no reference to Colonial Pipeline. Colonial declined to comment on whetherDarkSidehackerswere involved in the attack, when the breach occurred or whatransom they demanded. Bidenbriefedon hack President Joe Biden was briefed on the cyberattack onSaturday morning, the White House said, adding that thegovernment was working to try to help the companyrestoreoperations and prevent supply disruptions. U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana whosits on the Energy Committee, said lawmakers are prepared towork more with privately held critical infrastructure companiesto guard against cyberattacks. "The implication for this, for our national security, cannotbe overstated. And I promise you, this is something thatRepublicans and Democrats can work together on," he said onNBC's "Meet the Press." Another fuel pipeline serving the same regions carries athird of what Colonial does.Any prolonged outage would requiretankers to transport fuels from the U.S. Gulf Coast to EastCoast ports. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is issuing atemporary hours of service exemption to truckers transportingrefined products to 17 southern and east coast states includingAlabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and New York. Complicating the fallback plans, according to one industrysource familiar with the federal response, was that the ranks offuel-truck drivers for the main road transportation companies, which could pick up some of the pipeline volume, are down by 25%or more because of coronavirus infections. Oil refining companies contacted by Reuters over the weekendsaid their operations had not yet been impacted. Some wereworking to find alternative transport for customers. The privately held, Georgia-based company is owned by CDPQColonial Partners L.P., IFM (US) Colonial Pipeline 2 LLC,KKR-Keats Pipeline Investors L.P., Koch Capital InvestmentsCompany LLC and Shell Midstream Operating LLC. .