A coder at the Def Con hackers conference this weekend demonstrated a major security flaw in SCADA systems, the software used to control lots of important infrastructure, like electricity grids and oil refineries.
Like lots of critical software, the stuff used here is out of date, unencrypted, and far too easy to exploit. Companies, update your code!
If history's a guide, we might be in genuine danger, olfactory and otherwise. The biggest reported attack on a SCADA system in the past was by a disgruntled Australian who took control of a waste management facility and flooded the streets, and the local Hyatt, with raw sewage.
He was an insider, not a jihadist or regular black-hatted hacker. But this still sure sounds like something to fix.
