Considering how disastrous a cyber attack on our infrastructure would be, why are these systems accessable via the internet?

Question

After the pipeline got shot down, it got me thinking about our electrical grid. If they managed to sit it down for just a few weeks, the damage and loss of life would be catastrophic. Why on earth are these systems even accessable to anyone outside this country?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Stupidity and short sightedness from people paid to be smart and forward thinking. And sometimes politics.

I worked at such a site, I strongly argued against connecting to the Internet or at least maintaining and air gap.

But Politics intervened, there was political capital and point scoring to be made and so the decision was made to connect everything to the Internet.