World News for Students of English

24-05-2021 07:00

A recent cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline for the east of the US was the most disruptive attack ever, and it triggered people to panic buy gasoline.

The hacking group Darkside said it also hacked four other companies such as a Toshiba company in Germany. Reportedly, Colonial Pipeline paid $5 million to the hackers, but the company did not confirm if it paid any money.

Colonial Pipeline runs the largest pipeline of gasoline in the US, and when the hack began, the event shut down the pipeline. People panicked and bought so much gasoline that gas stations ran out of gas, and the price of gasoline climbed over $3.00, which was the most expensive since 2014. US gasoline use then fell; a gasoline website said it was likely due to the less panic buying over time.

The situation improved recently after ships and trucks came to fill the empty gasoline tanks.

Difficult words: disruptive (a very problematic event), trigger (to cause people to react), panic buy (to buy something out of fear), shut down (to close), run out of (to have nothing left).

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