>Keyword here: "networks". So were these "networks" air-gapped....or not?
What is your definition of network and air-gap?
If copying words off a printed page by typing it into my computer, have I just bridged the networks?
What I don't think I've seen a previous post mention is KVM systems. My guess is the most practical definition of air gap for commercial systems would exclude the connected, networked KVMs from being considered breaching the air gap.
These companies aren't going to have top talent staff in their data centers -- or remote sites -- around the clock. They also can't wait several hours in a snow storm for a senior sysadmin to drive in and take a look at realize its a fat fingered DNS entry that will take 15 seconds to fix and 45 minutes to fill out the emergency change record afterwards.
Isolate the critical systems from the internet on a fully "air gapped" network which has no router to outside systems. Tech support KVMs in, see they need to patch, tell the 24x7 Operations staff where to download it so they can transfer it by USB/DVD/Zip Disk/1.2 Quadrillion Floppies to the secure network, tech support then continues the patch via KVM.
Now if you happen to compromise a networked KVM, you can have fun with #!/bin/sh or powersHell sneaking in scripts here and there. Find a system with a C or other compiler installed things could be really interesting.
If you can't stay online to see grab the video output, write to innocuous looking files (or right into a log file so it is hidden in plain sight) and come back later to take snap shots of the screen as you look through the files.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
