Gasoline.
It's an integral part of modern civilization.
We use it to drive our cars, to fly our planes
and to destroy our planets.
But thanks to a hack on a major pipeline this week,
America has been going through withdrawal.
NEWSMAN: The effects of the Russia-based ransomware attack
are being felt up and down the east coast
in what some Homeland Security officials
are calling in a new bulletin...
NEWSWOMAN: A new report says Colonial Pipeline Company
paid nearly five million dollars in ransom to hackers.
Operations at the Colonial Pipeline are now back online.
NEWSMAN 2: But the ordeal isn't over yet.
Overnight, people driving from station to station
just looking for gas.
NEWSWOMAN 2: How many gas stations have you tried?
-Eight. -WOMAN: This is my sixth.
Everything is, like,
-out of gas. -MAN: People were coming in
and loading, trying to buy, you know,
five and ten cans' worth of gasoline--
they're just hoarding it.
NEWSMAN 2: In Richmond, Virginia, this man
filling up water bottles with extra gas.
And in North Carolina, tensions high--
a fight breaking out in line for the pumps.
NEWSMAN 3: The FBI identified the group responsible
for the attack as DarkSide, a gang of hackers
based in Russia in a brazen scheme to extort money.
NEWSWOMAN 2: According to Reuters, DarkSide
posted a statement Monday, saying it
"never meant to create havoc, and...
Wow. These hackers caused so much damage
that they felt like they had to apologize.
"We just wanted to steal money.
"We never wanted to make people wait in lines.
"To hear more of our apology,
please type in your bank account number."
But, hey, man, you got to admit, that's still more responsibility
than most legitimate businesses ever accept.
You know, when drug companies flooded America with opioids,
they were just like, "Yo, sorry
"your whole town is dead, everybody,
but maybe next time, you shouldn't have back pain!"
The crazy thing to me is
that there wouldn't even have been a gas shortage
if people hadn't panicked and starting hoarding gas
because they thought there would be a shortage.
And, guys, please use your heads.
You don't need to rush out and buy something
just because you think it might be in short supply.
Always remember to take a moment, breathe, and realize
that you can always just rob your neighbor later
if shit gets hard.
And while I'm giving advice: obviously, filling water bottles
with gasoline is a stupid idea, people,
because now, you realize you're gonna have bottles of gas
right next to your bottles of water.
And then what's gonna happen, huh?
If you're not careful,
you might end up accidentally drinking Dasani.
Now, thankfully, it's looking like America will soon be back
to burning as much fossil fuel as it wants.
The bigger problem is that America's vulnerability
to ransomware is here to stay.
The question is, though, what is ransomware?
And why is it so hard to stop?
Well, let's find out in another episode of
"If You Don't Know, Now You Know."
? ?
Ransomware-- it sounds like a fashion line
for casual, yet elegant kidnappers.
But it's actually a big problem that's only getting worse.
NEWSMAN: Ransomware is a cyberattack
in which hackers threaten
to shut down networks or publish private information
unless paid a ransom.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates
a 300% increase in such attacks in the past year alone,
with a cost of more than $350 million in ransoms.
NEWSWOMAN: Ransomware encrypts a computer network's data
to hold it hostage,
and then will only give the digital decryption key
to unlock it for a price.
NEWSWOMAN 2: The average payment climbed
from a few thousand dollars in 2018
to more than $230,000.
NEWSMAN 2: Desperate to recover their data,
some businesses have paid as much as $935,000 in ransom.
NEWSWOMAN 3: They demand a ransom, usually in bitcoin,
a largely untraceable digital currency.
NEWSMAN 3: Ransomware has become such a frequent occurrence,
40% of companies in the U.K. with over 250 employees are now
stockpiling bitcoin in the event of an attack.
Oh, man, this is terrible.
These hackers aren't just forcing people to pay money.
They're forcing them to learn about bitcoin.
Oh, that's the real crime.
But at the same time, it makes sense.
You know, if your company gets hacked, then you're prepared.
And if you don't get hacked, you can always give bitcoin
to your employees as Christmas gifts.
Happy holidays, everyone.
Go buy a hit man off the dark web.
Yay!
But, yes, much like matcha flavoring,
ransomware attacks went
from something you've never really heard of
to being basically everywhere.
Which makes sense, because as the world gets more online,
there are more and more targets to choose from.
And it's not helping that it's also really cheap and easy
to pull these scams off.
NEWSMAN: A ransomware incident
usually starts innocently enough.
Maybe an interesting special promotion offer
or an e-mail disguised as coming from your boss.
But once you click on the link or download the file,
it can kick off a debilitating attack.
NEWSMAN 2: The barriers to entry
to create ransomware are really low.
NEWSMAN 3: Hackers advertise do-it-yourself ransomware kits
on the dark web.
It's an incredibly detailed guide
that enables you to customize every aspect of the ransomware
without ever really having to write any code yourself.
NEWSMAN 4: Today, almost anyone can get their hands
on ransomware technology.
Ransomware can be purchased on the deep web
for as little as $39.
Okay, whoa, whoa. That's-that's crazy to me.
You can buy ransomware for just $39?
That's, like, nothing!
I mean, to be fair, though, that's probably the version
that has ads, right?
Like, you can shut down America's energy infrastructure,
but every ten minutes, you have to watch
that stupid LiMu emu commercial.
What the hell is that?
I'm not going to buy insurance from an emu.
I'm gonna buy it from a gecko.
I'm sophisticated like that.
And by the way, am I the only one who feels like
it kind of ruins the drama of a ransomware attack
when you find out that all these guys are doing is
basically just tricking someone
inside the company into giving them access.
Because, like, when you think of hacking, what do you think of?
You think of the computer equivalent
of Tom Cruise breaking into a building with diamond cutters
and coming down from the ceiling on wires
and dodging the lasers, you know?
When in reality, it's more like Tom Cruise just yelling
at a security guard, "Hey, I'm here to fix the toilet."
And then the guard just waves him in.
And the reason this works so well is
because people will click on anything.
I mean, have you seen the links at the bottom of news articles?
"You'll never believe what the house
from Malcolm in the Middle looks like today."
I mean, I've never even seen that show,
but I've read that article eight times.
And one of the most messed up things about these crimes
is who tends to be the victims.
It's not usually rich corporations,
because they can afford the latest cybersecurity
and the best I.T. guys.
You know, I'm talking about the guy
with the shortest short-sleeve button-downs.
You know, the ones that barely make it past the shoulders.
So because these companies are harder to strike, instead,
the hackers squeeze ransom out of the places
that can already least afford it.
NEWSMAN: For years, ransomware attacks have targeted retailers,
hospitals, police departments, utilities,
state and local governments,
their data held hostage until they pay up.
Cash-strapped municipalities are uniquely vulnerable
to this kind of ransomware attack,
because they're using older systems,
they don't keep them updated,
and they don't have the resources to be able to respond.
SCOTT PELLEY: Today, 26% of cities and counties
say they fend off an attack on their networks every hour.
Cyber crooks know governments and hospitals are likely to pay
because they can't afford not to.
There was nothing that we could do to unlock those files.
The best option for us, even though it was the last
and worst option for us, was to pay the ransom.
Shame, man.
I can't believe hackers are stooping so low
that they're demanding ransom from police departments.
It's disgusting.
They need that money
for their brutality settlements, you monsters!
And of course, a hospital has no other choice but to pay.
I mean, if hackers shut down your operating room
in the middle of a surgery, what are you gonna do?
Send the patient home
with only one of their butt implants put in?
No! The cheeks would be uneven!
So, hackers are using ransomware to cripple hospitals,
police departments, utility companies
and local governments.
And as a society, it's going to be chaos
if all of those things crash.
I mean, except for the hospitals. I don't need those.
When it's my time, it's my time, and I'm ready, B.
Unless it's my appendix. Then I need a hospital.
But I mean for, like, major shit, you know what I mean?
So because it's so major, you'd think
that the federal government would step in
and make sure that this doesn't happen.
The problem is,
there's actually not much the federal government can do.
NEWSMAN: This chaos left in the wake
of Colonial Pipeline's ransomware attack
has heightened concerns about America's cybersecurity.
The energy grid and water supply
have almost no federally-mandated,
cybersecurity protections.
NEWSWOMAN: The federal government depends
on private companies improving their cyber
hygiene to avoid ransomware attacks.
NEWSMAN 2: 85% of American critical infrastructure is owned
and operated by the private sector.
The government has very little visibility
on whether these private corporations
have good cybersecurity or bad cybersecurity.
One of the issues is, with private companies,
they are not required to disclose cyberattacks.
NEWSWOMAN 2: That really hinders the ability for law enforcement
and the government to make an informed decision and develop
the best policy options that they have
to try and counter this attack.
No country is more connected technologically than the U.S.
And that makes you more vulnerable
to this kind of stuff.
I mean, really, the only solution is,
turn the switch off, right?
I mean, disconnect yourself from the Internet.
Yeah, disconnecting from the Internet doesn't sound so hard.
I mean, all you have to do is subscribe to Spectrum.
No, but for real, though, I get that it's difficult
for the government to regulate the internal security
of private companies, but the solution to ransomware
cannot be to put the entire country into airplane mode.
I mean, no one even does that on airplanes.
Unfortunately, as of right now,
there's not another solution that seems workable.
So, until there is,
Americans might need to stop panic-buying gasoline,
and start panic-buying bitcoin.
And if you don't know, now you know.