On 11/21/11 10:32 AM, Jay Ashworth wrote:
On an Illinois water utility:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45359594/ns/technology_and_science-security
Cheers,
-- jra
Having worked on plenty of industrial and other control systems I can
safely say security on the systems is generally very poor. The
vulnerabilities have existed for years but are just now getting
attention. This is a problem that doesn't really need a bunch of new
legislation. It's an education / resource issue. The existing
methods that have been used for years with reasonable success in the IT
industry can 'fix' this problem.
Industrial Controls systems are normally only replaced when they are so
old that parts can no longer be obtained. PC's started to be widely
used as operator interfaces about the time Windows 95 came out. A lot
of those Win95 boxes are still running and have been connected to the
network over the years.
And... if you can destroy a pump by turning it off and on too often then
somebody engineered the control and drive system incorrectly. Operators
(and processes) do stupid things all the time. As the control systems
engineer your supposed to deal with that so that things don't go boom.
--
Mark Radabaugh
Amplex
m...@amplex.net 419.837.5015