A problem waiting to happen
It doesn't surprise me. Many years ago, when auditing offshore oil export systems, one platform had decided to update the flow monitoring computers. The "traditional" system used discrete computers for each flow stream, hard coded and self-contained to take parameters from its stream instruments (flow rate, density, and several pressure and temperature sensors) to calculate the "standard" volume exported. This approach was proven and robust. However, one operator decided they wanted to monitor the system from an onshore office (rather than rely on onsite personnel sending the readings in a daily email) - so installed a system of "virtual" flow computers running under Windows XP. In my report I expressed concern from two angles:
a) How would the system accommodate OS updates (as there was a reliance on specialist drivers)? Basically, they would need to block all OS updates unless the supplier also updated drivers - and proven for each update.
b) How well was the system protected from attack (as the system was being monitored over the corporate intranet and especially since it couldn't be patched without significant expense - point a)?
This, realising we were talking about a system that recorded production worth several million dollars a day - revenue lost any time the system was offline.
I never returned there but have often wondered how it has fared since. Anonymous, to protect the guilty!!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
