A cyber-attack on a shared data network forced four of the nation’s natural gas pipeline operators to temporarily shutdown computer communications with the customers for over a week. No gas service was interrupted, but it was unclear if any customer data was stolen. Aside from consumer and business data, energy companies possess proprietary information about their holdings, trading strategies and much exploration and production technologies. The dependence of pipeline infrastructure on digital systems makes them a target. Control valves, pressure monitors and other equipment connected to wireless networks are vital to daily functions. With almost 2.5 million miles of oil, gas and chemical pipelines all over the country, intrusions into control systems could do more than disrupt deliveries. Risks could include explosions, spills, or fires.
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Elizabeth,
I really enjoyed reading this article and was quite surprised with the way the attacks were conducted on Natural gas pipeline. I believe public resources, especially government aided, are far more protected than private organizations data. While it’s still unsure whether the customer data was stolen or not, I would certainly not like to see anything here. I believe that there has absolutely been no harm in having dependency, but what was more important is the concrete firewall that should have been in place to prevent cyber-attacks on pipeline infrastructures.
Quite an interesting article though. This is definitely one of the breakthroughs as I would like to say as this would allow lesser management of passwords and users can easily login using either of single or multi-factor authentication protocols. The only solution for this is to partner with hardware manufacturing companies to integrate this in the systems before being shipped to consumers.