President Biden pleaded with Americans on Thursday to refrain from stocking up on gas out of "panic" and promised that supply levels should be almost back to normal by next week after a cyber-attack crippled one of the country's largest fuel pipelines.
Speaking at the White House, Biden took solace in the fact that the targeted Colonial Pipeline came back online late Wednesday, meaning the worst is over as long as consumers don't exacerbate the problem.
"In states affected, here is what drivers can do: Don't panic," Biden said. "Seeing lines at the pump or gas stations with no gas can be extremely stressful, but this is a temporary situation. Do not get more gas than you need in the next few days. We expected the situation to improve by the weekend and into early next week and gasoline supply is coming back online and panic buying will only slow the process."
The Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Texas to New York and supplies much of the East Coast with fuel, shut down last Friday after cyber-criminals hacked into its servers and demanded a ransom to return stolen data.
The FBI has traced the attack to a criminal hacking group called DarkSide that is believed to be based in Eastern Europe.
© Evan VucciPresident Joe Biden delivers remarks at the White House on May 12, 2021, in Washington.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the White House on May 12, 2021, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/)
In his remarks, Biden for the first time said his administration believes the hackers are operating out of Russia, though he stressed that the Kremlin does not appear to be responsible.
"We do not believe the Russian government was involved in this attack but we do have strong reason to believe that the criminals in the attack were living in Russia, that's where it came from," he said.
The debilitating cyber-attack has caused severe gas shortages in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and other states. New York and New Jersey have so far not been impacted, but could feel some of the heat as the supply chain recovers after going dark for nearly a week.
Biden declined to comment when asked by a reporter if the pipeline was able to resume operations because Colonial paid DarkSide the requested ransom.
Bloomberg News, however, reported Thursday that the company paid the hackers nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency hours after last week's attack.