Colonial Pipeline forked over $4.4M to end cyberattack – but is paying a ransom ever the ethical thing to do?
- Written by Scott Shackelford, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics; Executive Director, Ostrom Workshop; Cybersecurity Program Chair, IU-Bloomington, Indiana University
What would happen if companies stopped paying ransoms?Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty ImagesIt took little over two hours for hackers to gain control of more than 100 gigabytes of information from Colonial Pipeline on May 7, 2021 – causing the firm to shut down its fuel distribution network and sparking widespread fears of a gasoline shortage. The...