“attacks against thousands of electric grids, water plants”
For myself, I ask why in the hell are components of the electric grids and water systems DIRECTLY Internet connected to begin with.
I can see the humans involved having Internet connections as to communications with each other, but those should be separate systems from those actually doing the controls, with NO connection between them.
Disconnet the kinds of connections that make cyber hacking of the electric grid possible. Hire more humans who have multiple montioring and communications systems that have no electronic connections between them, with all functions operated by humans telling a system what to do, a system that is not connected to anything else anywhere.
Many Wall Street traders have long operated with multiple monitors on their desks for years, with some monitors connected to internal systems and some connected directly to the trading floor.
Bingo.
“For myself, I ask why in the hell are components of the electric grids and water systems DIRECTLY Internet connected to begin with.”
I don’t think they’re using the internet alone. The internet is probably the primary comms path between nodes on the grid since it’s safe and effective most of the time. However, if something appears to be going screwy, it probably falls over to a slower, but more secure / closed circuit means of communication (encrypted satellite, comms over power lines, etc). The only reason I suspect they don’t use the “safest” means of comms all of the time is due to latency.
If they are using the internet alone to keep the power grid active, the people in charge should be fired immediately.
I confess I know little about our computer systems, but the time to try to see that our “EVERYTHING” isnt all linked up, is long gone. Anything that has been built in the last several decades, is run on computer systems. Of course, most modern inventions wouldn’t be possible without them, but the protestations of we luddites fell on deaf ears. There is no way to operate most of what we have, without computers communicating with each other.
Now they tell us that, basically, ANYTHING can be hacked. As I said, I don’t know much, but if all that hardware China, Russia, and other bad actors have been lobbing into space for years, isn’t put there to work against us, and other western nations, I would be very much surprised. How much defensive equipment we’ve sent up, ourselves, I’m sure I don’t know, but I’ll bet we didn’t do much to protect ourselves during the Obama administration.
Big brother has been here for a long time.
Now! Who wants one of those hot new security systems in their homes, which connects everything we own, everything we do, and everything we say, all up together? (Unfortunately, plenty of people do). There’s an app for that!
Pray without ceasing.
This is why our nukes are backed by FLOPPIES!
Most Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants are controlled by a SCADA System (Site Control and Data Acquisition) via Computers that control: Pumps, Tank Levels, Valves, Chemical Feeder Pumps, Warning Sensors, Real-time Water Quality Sensors, Pager or Phone calls to Operaters if the System is small enough to not require an Onsite 24/7/365(6) Operaters.
The same for Electric Plants.
Some Systems use Radios to connect with the SCADA to Remote Sites, some use Internet Connections for speed and cost reasons. Most Systems are on the internet to allow Operaters to control the System from home or wherever the Operaters may be. Do You know how fast the Public reacts when the water doesn’t come out of the faucet or smells/tastes bad ?
I’ll tell you from experience that the phone number for the Plant Office is NUMBER 1 on the Speed Dial when something is going wrong. The rest of the time when the System is working fine Everybody forgets about the People that spend 12 hours at a time running things.
Trust Me 99 times out of 100 We are already working on getting the problem fixed.
As far as terrorscum if they hack into the SCADA the first thing that they are going to do is Lockout everyone else and then they can overdose/underdose the Chemicals, overflow or empty Storage Tanks on a Water Treatment Plant and a Wastewater Plant the same AND they could make the System backup and flood the City or on the opposite end they could dump Raw Sewage into the Lakes or Rivers leading to Contamination of the Water Source for the Water Treatment Plant.