BREAKING: Colonial Pipeline resumes operations following shutdown due to ransomware attack

The Colonial Pipeline has been restarted after being shutdown for several days due to a ransomware attack.

The shutdown has caused massive panic buying in many southeastern states, resulting in many gas stations to run out of fuel.

“Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal,” said the company in a statement. “Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period. Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal.”

As of 6PM EST, the following percentage of gas stations in each state currently are out of gas:

Before the restart to the pipeline, President Joe Biden stated that “good news” will be coming out in the next 24 hours, adding that the White House had been in contact with the company that heads the pipeline.

The Colonial Pipeline, which carries 45% of the east coast’s fuel, was shut down due to a ransomware attack. It carries around 2.5 million barrels of fuel every day. It stretches 5,500 miles and provides fuel for many large airports, including Atlanta and Baltimore.

The Department of Energy led the federal government’s response in cooperation with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defence.

“So far there is no evidence from our intelligence people that Russia is involved although there is evidence that the actor’s ransomware is in Russia. They have some responsibility to deal with this,” said Biden from the White House on Monday.

President Biden has pledged to increase the cybersecurity of natural gas pipelines, water, and other important sectors. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the administration is considering further insight.

“We cannot continue to limit our pipeline system’s capacity, as was the case with the Keystone XL pipeline, or these types of incidents will only pose more severe consequences in the future,” said Republican Congressmen Sam Graves and Rick Crawford.

Gas prices have risen, topping $3 per gallon nationally for the first time since 2014.