White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki grilled on ransom paid to pipeline hackers

In a White House Press Briefing Thursday, reporters questioned Jen Psaki about the nearly $5 million ransom Colonial Pipeline paid to the hackers of the pipeline, whose shutdown caused lines at gas stations and shortages along the southern east coast.

"Does the fact that Colonial Pipeline paid a ransom, make you concerned that this could happen over and over again, these types of hacks?" asked Reuter's Steve Holland.

"Let me say that I would refer you to the company for any confirmation or comment on that particular question," stated Psaki. "It continues to be the position of the federal government, the FBI, that it is not in the interests of the private sector for companies to pay ransom because it incentivizes these actions leading to your point."

Psaki added that a lesson to be learned from this incident is the importance of hardened cyber security.

"I will say that one of the lessons that other companies should take away from this hack is that It's important to harden your cyber security, to take the necessary steps to ensure that you're protected," Psaki said.

"There are steps we can take from the federal government, obviously the president signed an executive order last night," she continued. "We believe that its important to increase cooperation, sharing of best practices between the public and private sector in a way that hasn't been done in past administrations. But ultimately, its up to these companies to take the steps to protect themselves."

Another reporter asked Psaki about the potential for retaliation from the US, potentially on the Russian NordStream 2 Pipeline.

"There's still an ongoing investigation. Obviously the president was speaking to what we know now. But in terms of the conclusion of that we would point you to the FBI and in terms of what steps could be taken that would likely be recommended by cyber command and we're just not quite there yet," replied Psaki.