This is sufficiently remote in time and sufficiently obscure to share, now.
One of my close friends is an information security specialist. That's corporate-speak for "professional hacker", of course.
A few years back, I was chatting with him over IM and he was kvetching about the latest client he had been assigned to. He very carefully did not name the client, nor did he give any particular clue as to where they are geographically.
Put simply, he had been contracted to do an assessment on the control systems for a hydroelectric dam. At first, he thought he would have to travel to the site. To his horror, he learned that this would be a remote job. Done from his couch, like so many others.
"Why is this system connected to the Internet?"
"Oh, but everything is connected to the Net these days!"
"Yes, but...why is THIS system connected to the Internet?"
"But everything is connected to the Internet!"
So he was sitting there trying to write a polished, professional, detailed report that boiled down to, "WHY do you have the computers running a hydroelectric dam connected to the INTERNET? WHY?!"
I have never pressured him in any way to tell me whose dam it is. Partly because I know he would sooner take that info to his grave, but mostly because I am afraid he would say something like "TVA", and that would mean they are ALL that way and they are all STILL that way!
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Date: 2009-04-11 10:55 pm (UTC)One of my close friends is an information security specialist. That's corporate-speak for "professional hacker", of course.
A few years back, I was chatting with him over IM and he was kvetching about the latest client he had been assigned to. He very carefully did not name the client, nor did he give any particular clue as to where they are geographically.
Put simply, he had been contracted to do an assessment on the control systems for a hydroelectric dam. At first, he thought he would have to travel to the site. To his horror, he learned that this would be a remote job. Done from his couch, like so many others.
"Why is this system connected to the Internet?"
"Oh, but everything is connected to the Net these days!"
"Yes, but...why is THIS system connected to the Internet?"
"But everything is connected to the Internet!"
So he was sitting there trying to write a polished, professional, detailed report that boiled down to, "WHY do you have the computers running a hydroelectric dam connected to the INTERNET? WHY?!"
I have never pressured him in any way to tell me whose dam it is. Partly because I know he would sooner take that info to his grave, but mostly because I am afraid he would say something like "TVA", and that would mean they are ALL that way and they are all STILL that way!