The Colonial Pipeline, which supplies oil to the east coast of the US, is said to have temporarily suspended all pipeline operations after the theft.
A pipeline operator in the United States has been forced to shut down the entire network following a cyber attack, the company said.
Colonel Colonel said a words late Friday that he was the victim of a “cybersecurity attack”.
“In response, we took other offline systems to address the threat, which has halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of the IT’s,” it said.
The Colonial colonial network supplies oil from U.S. oil producers in the Gulf Coast to the eastern and southern United States.
The company delivers 2.5 million barrels a day of oil, diesel, jet fuel and other refined pipelines through 8,850km (5,500 miles) pipelines.
The colonial pipeline is said to export 45% of oil east of the coast.
Mike Chapple, a professor at Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame and a former computer scientist with the US National Security Agency.
“The closure of the pipeline sends the message that major weapons in our country continue to be at risk of cyber threats,” Chapple told Reuters news agency.
In a statement, the company said it had hired an independent business company to investigate the fraud and liaise with law enforcement officials and US officials.
“In the meantime, our main goal is to rehabilitate our work and try to get back to normalcy. This work is already underway,” he said.
The US has been rocked in recent months by reports of major security breaches.
The program of SolarWinds major hack hacked hundreds of US government computers and secret societies and was charged in Russia; while another hacking Microsoft email servers.
It is believed that the latter affected at least 30,000 U.S. agencies including local governments and is said to have carried out a vicious Chinese spy campaign.
The two intruders appear to have been intent on stealing emails and data but have also created “back doors” that could allow attacks on physical activity, the New York Times reported.
