Introduction
Back in May of 2021, there was a ransomware attack made on the Colonial Pipeline, which disrupted the ability for fuel to be spread throughout the United States. When people hear about pipelines, they don’t realize how much technology is involved; it’s not just pipes that move fuel; there are parts that are electronic now. The attack was done by a group known as DarkSide, and the attack was done so easily because of a lack of security measures and because the systems weren’t updated and new. This shows that cybersecurity failures are not only caused by just humans or technology; they are actually caused by both.
Social Science Integration
When cyberattacks happen, it instills feelings of fear and urgency, which makes it where people make decisions without clearly thinking because they’re afraid of what will happen if they wait. According to BBC’s Joe Tidy, “The hackers will make themselves known, announcing that they have encrypted all the data in the network and are prepared to leak it onto the internet and delete it if they are not paid a ransom by a certain deadline.” (Tidy, 2021). This clearly shows that the hackers are trying to put pressure onto Colonial to give them what they want for their information will be lost permanently. People react differently under pressure, and Colonial wouldn’t want all the info to be gone, so they wouldn’t have a choice but to pay the ransom that DarkSide demanded. If Colonial had chosen to keep their systems up-to-date and have safety measures in place, this wouldn’t have happened as easily. However, they wanted to keep everything running efficiently instead of updating everything, which could have been disruptive to productivity if they had to teach their employees how to use a new system.

Proposed Solutions
Training needs to happen with all employees to help them understand the risks and what to look out for. Without training, employees can’t learn to form safer habits to help lessen the risks. Creating multi-factor authentication methods for the system would make it more difficult for hackers to be able to hack into the systems. They need to also keep a close watch on their systems to ensure that they are running smoothly and that they are not being hacked into.
Challenges and Barriers
The biggest challenge, as with almost anything, is money. Having to upgrade systems and security measures isn’t cheap, and Colonial would have to fork out the money to make it safer from attacks. Some people, especially those who have worked at Colonial for a long time, could resist the change; they could think that the original ways worked better and that by upgrading everything, it could overcomplicate everything and make work harder.
Reflection
Cybersecurity has never been just a technical issue; it is also a human issue. Decision-making, human behaviors, and the cultures of a company help to determine how strong the system actually is. The company could have the strongest security system out there, but if people aren’t being safe, then the security system isn’t going to remain as strong. A cyberattack can do more
than affect a device, it can also affect real-life things like Colonial Pipeline, which caused gas
shortages, increased gas prices, and people freaking out. Social science is needed to help us
understand why cyber attacks succeed.
Works Cited
Russon, M.-A. (2021, May 10). US fuel pipeline hackers ‘didn’t mean to create problems’.
Retrieved from BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57050690
Tidy, J. (2021, May 10). Colonial hack: How did cyber-attackers shut off pipeline. Retrieved
from BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57063636