re: Can someone in the know explain RE: pipeline "hack"?

Most likely all connected systems were brought “off network” to mitigate the attack. The attack was likely an encryption deal where all computers connected to the system started getting their files encrypted, as well as stolen data. They will keep everything “offline” until they clean it up. On average that takes two weeks. For something like this where it’s a national security issue, maybe they can get everything cleaned up and back to working order in less than two weeks.