This is how stupid Goobermint InfoSec Design is...

[AZRedhawk44]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/foreign-hackers-broke-into-illinois-water-plant-control-system-industry-expert-says/2011/11/18/gIQAgmTZYN_blog.html

If you don't want people hacking it...

...then don't plug it in to the internet!


Jeez.  It's that simple.

Take the control systems for Nuclear Plants off of the physical copper lines that are connected to the innerwebz.

Take the control systems for water plants off the physical copper lines that are connected to the innerwebz.


I guarantee you that some idgit in Infectedbuttistan can't hack the duracell batteries in my closet, or the manual tap to my garden hose.

I understand the far more complicated systems above require computer automation to function properly.  But, the likelihood of these plants NEEDING to be operated remotely is non-existent.  There will always be someone at the plant, connected to the physical copper on the dedicate private network that runs the plant, to push the buttons and click the mice.

And if not.... create a dedicated PRIVATE WAN link via satellite.

There's just no reason to merge these critical infrastructure systems with the internet.  Nothing but drawbacks.

[Fitz]

I've been saying this for a while. The only secure system with respect to remote attack is the system that ISN'T CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET.

Idiots.

[Frank Castle]

But what are the poor workers going to do with out youtube and facebook !

[kgbsquirrel]

But what are the poor workers going to do with out youtube and facebook !

Slide their sit and swivels four feet to the right and use the unclas computer hooked into the internet. Seriously. I've worked in places where I had three different computer systems for my job, none of which were interconnected, and then if I needed outside internet access for whatever, there was a fourth computer down on the end with green and white hash tape plastered all over the frame of the monitor.

[Fitz]

This   ^


Critical systems disconnected from the net. Seperate systems for everything else

[Frank Castle]

I'm surfing from green and white computer .

[roo_ster]

Slide their sit and swivels four feet to the right and use the unclas computer hooked into the internet. Seriously. I've worked in places where I had three different computer systems for my job, none of which were interconnected, and then if I needed outside internet access for whatever, there was a fourth computer down on the end with green and white hash tape plastered all over the frame of the monitor.

This.

[MechAg94]

But what are the poor workers going to do with out youtube and facebook !

Our operators already have a separate computer they use for email that is connected to the internet. 

The only reasons I would say our plant has a firewalled connection is to allow remote access and data sharing.  We have a data historian systesm that pulls data in at each plant.  I can run trends of process data from several plants.  The other reason is to allow remote access by technical experts within the company.  We have more small plants rather than a few big ones.  Can't have a full complete staff of experts at each site.  That said, our plants aren't really critical in the short term.

If they need to do data sharing, they can also output dedicated data points across wire pairs.  Takes more space and hardware, but it isn't a general data connection.  For a big nuke plant, there shouldn't be any need for internet connectivity. 

[birdman]

Nuclear plant controls are not, legally can't, and won't be connected via ANY method to "the Internet" they are airgapped, just like any well designed protected architecture.  So don't worry about that one at least.  Other utilities...who knows.

[KD5NRH]

If you don't want people hacking it...

...then don't plug it in to the internet!

But then how do you get your Windows updates on time?