Hacking the grid in preparation for war?

computerworld.com

9 pointsjpwagner5 comments

Why are these things on a public net in the first place? (Other than the detail that it's probably cheaper to do it that way.) The control systems of vital infrastructure should be on their own network, with authentication through public key cryptography.

Wouldn't a VPN suffice? If not - why not?

This is a great point.

The California Department of Justice has a huge private network (On RFC 1918 space) that police stations and other government agencies must use to connect to the databases that the CA DOJ provides.

Preparing for war? Sound like FUD to me.

Being prepared in the event a war happens is more likely.

Putting in place the tools to disable infrastructure is an act of war, so is reconnaissance. It may not be an overt action, but it is a real and quantifiable threat.

Of course most of the SCADA systems out there are pretty much hopeless if they are connected to the internet at all.

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