Our close allies in the middle east, you know… friendly
nations like Saudi Arabia decided they’d withhold oil and that resulted in one
of the worst episodes of the decade, gas lines.
We lined up. We waited. We made sure our license plate
number ended on the right day, odd or even numbers... Odd plates on odd days,
even plates on even days. It wasn’t quite rationing. But restrictions
applied.
Never did find out what day you went -- odd or even number
-- if you had a vanity plate with no numbers. What day did “Hot Shot” legally
get on the line? Or “Martha?” Or “Bobs Toy?”
The price of gasoline averaged out to about 69 cents a
gallon in the early years. It shot up to (gasp!) one dollar and then went
even higher. That was big money in those days.
And now, history repeats itself. A bunch of hackers
shut down the Colonial Pipeline and demanded owners pay a ransom. Who
were these hackers? Maybe a kid fighting acne and loneliness in his
parents’ basement in Bulgaria. Maybe whatever initials the KGB goes by
these days.
The shutdown… just five days… resulted in shortages, price
increases and -- wait for it -- gas lines. Not everywhere. But not
nowhere, either. No shortage. Just no transportation. Amazing
what you can do on the internet with a few keystrokes.
Does this strike you as strange? The pipeline starts
in Texas and ends in Greater New York. But the shortages hit the southern
end of the pipe harder than the terminal.
How about this for strange? Ransomware shuts down the
computer until the ransom is paid. The pipeline is moving again. So
who paid whom and how much? Current reports put the payoff as $5 million in the
artificial internet currency “Bitcoin.” This from a company that has said all
along “we don’t pay ransom demands.”
Or was it a matter of “our” hackers were better than “their”
hackers and undid the lockout with a few keystrokes and not even a call to
Microsoft Customer Support. They’d still be waiting if they relied on
outside help.
One thing’s pretty sure. The problem wasn’t solved
with software self-monitoring. That takes even longer than waiting for an
operator. And they don’t even bother insulting our intelligence by
telling them “Your self-diagnosis is very important to us.” They just put
up a rotating hourglass.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome
to them. ®
Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com
© WR 2021
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