U.S. Government Considers Making Ransom Payments Illegal

As the CEO of Colonial Pipeline testifies before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday about last month’s ransomware attack on the major fuel pipeline to the U.S. East Coast, legislators, and government officials have started to air the idea of making ransom payments illegal in some cases.

Colonial Pipeline’s chief executive Joseph Blount is appearing before Congress this week to testify, a month after the pipeline operator had to shut down operations for five days, which led to gasoline shortages and a spike in prices.…