Comment The funding and the bureaucracy (Score 1) 49
The "critical infrastructure results in operators overlooking weaknesses in their systems" is to be expected with the removal of local staff on site 24/7 replaced by automated or vast networked systems.
That reduced expensive union staff and allowed a smaller set of skilled workers to do the jobs of many. Great for profits as paying for less workers but the huge networks used might not always be dedicated and hardened or secure.
So vast amounts of maintenance, observation and operational use is expected to move along random networks.
In the past a real person doing shift work sat at a site and had control using a closed network. Now that network might reach a tri state area on many different networks with years of code and complexity.
The huge amounts of cash floating around after incidents is the new boondoggle. The networks need fixing, upgrading and a new cyber bureaucracy can point to cyber intrusions to get more political power, budget growth.
The real fix is in more maintenance, more staff and the correct use of real internal networks.
Working, well understood critical infrastructure is not difficult. Nations around the world can secure their own sites. Low quality networks over vast areas is not the best way to keep thinking about the issue.
That reduced expensive union staff and allowed a smaller set of skilled workers to do the jobs of many. Great for profits as paying for less workers but the huge networks used might not always be dedicated and hardened or secure.
So vast amounts of maintenance, observation and operational use is expected to move along random networks.
In the past a real person doing shift work sat at a site and had control using a closed network. Now that network might reach a tri state area on many different networks with years of code and complexity.
The huge amounts of cash floating around after incidents is the new boondoggle. The networks need fixing, upgrading and a new cyber bureaucracy can point to cyber intrusions to get more political power, budget growth.
The real fix is in more maintenance, more staff and the correct use of real internal networks.
Working, well understood critical infrastructure is not difficult. Nations around the world can secure their own sites. Low quality networks over vast areas is not the best way to keep thinking about the issue.