Data Acquisition

Gosh! That doesn't sounds too good. I believe always that that was been secured very well against such things already but who knows. First thing that will popout from top of my head is that that will be a job for a good 'Compu Security Manager' there, or on the other hand may be some data leak somewhere,who know's? I dont know! Anyway then will be good to review 'compu access' and hardware and software features to see where may be some 'weaks points' that need to get reinforce again. As you know that old saying--"Who ever invent the trap also invent the escape"-- may apply everywhere too. Who Know's?

Anyway hang in there and I am thinking more now on buying some alternate power supplies just in case something came 'Kaposh' one day down the road and the refri get belly-up. I don't want to think about the AC for now, Imagine that in the mid summer time, Oh Brotherrrrr! Good idea to go Solar-Wind and all of that then. Geeh!

Shopping Time,

MC

So are they admitting they did it?

Basically, the internet relies on the 'same' infrastructure as a voice comms link. Each need interconnectivity. That SCADA has tremendous report and control scope is a given, provided the communications medium is not compromised - either by breaks in data streams, intersections and tap-ins or substitutions of control and reporting events data. Absolute belief in the system of data integrity is a must, against a voice communication, for instance, where the human brain can still be fooled by an interloper - but not for long. The reliance placed on the internet is like a house built with sand foundations - each small erosion to the data stream reaches a critical point where there is no longer substance and the collapse occurs. We have seen swamping of servers and links by the sheer magnitude of communication events, let alone the corruption of systems by hackers, jam-spamming and virus programs. Industry must rely on dedicated, slavish, systems that may inter-communicate over distance by the internet, but stand-alone if the communication drops out. This leads to efficient use of the communications medium where dedicated linkage should be ovoided to free up available 'space' in the limiting nature of cost effective utility creation.

Well of course there are elements that can hack into anything that uses the internet, which is only a little bit more private than CB channel 19. Some means of networking the control of the power grid is probably a good idea, but the only advantages of using the internet are that it is "cheap and easy". Unfortunately security is neither cheap nor easy. So the choice is between non-secure and non-cheap. I can't offer a solution, only a warning.

#28 Engineering