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.
It is a matter of:
(a) dual systems - some people may need for some work reason to have an Internet connection, but that deos predicate that everything be Internet connected,
(b) and the Internt should not be rhe means for ANY remote communication with any unmanned equipment. Remote communications should use non-Internet, non-telecom-backbone means of remote communication.
Yes, it will require they spend more money and hire more people, and if they do it would not mean any repairs would get done any slower. A little extra cost for a lot more security.