'Life-or-death impacts': Colonial hack the latest in rising threat of ransomware attacks

Long lines and dry pumps at gas stations across the Southeast in recent days alerted Americans to the growing threat of cyberattacks on the systems that control many aspects of their lives and safety. 

Security experts say the ransomware attack that led to a five-day shutdown of Colonial Pipeline Co.’s lines supplying fuel to 14 states was just the latest of hundreds of such hacks on critical industries in the past year. Meanwhile, recommendations from security watchdogs that would bolster protections against such threats have gone unheeded. 

The tightest security would disconnect critical systems from the internet, experts say, as nuclear plants are required to do. And the government could mandate other security protocols rather than make recommendations with no penalties for noncompliance.