The threat of ransomware is that it makes life unpredictable
I’m a researcher at the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity where I direct the Daylight Lab. This is a newsletter about cybersecurity and politics. If you’d like to sign up to receive issues over email, you can do so here.
Last week, I was interviewed a few times about the Colonial pipeline ransomware attack. Why was this the attack that captured widespread attention? Compared to SolarWinds? Compared to Microsoft Exchange, in which Chinese intelligence could well have exfiltrated emails from every government agency and private-sector company in the US? I'm not sure—something about the US and its oil, perhaps.
Ransomware attacks don’t just disrupt pipelines, hospitals, or water plants; they disrupt trust in the predictability of everyday life. Remember: this pipeline ransomware did not directly cause the gas shortage: the ransomware freaked people out, making them panic-buy oil. The panic caused the shortage, not the hack.
Now imagine that panic revolves around water rather than oil. Imagine the electricity’s out. Imagine credit cards aren’t working. Imagine going to nytimes.com and not seeing the New York Times.
