8 ms·

Well, put too much inconvenience and some "smart" guy will circumvent it anyway. I have not personnaly worked in industrial environment, but from people I know

Well, put too much inconvenience and some "smart" guy will circumvent it anyway. I have not personnaly worked in industrial environment, but from people I know, security wise, it is very scary at some places. Here is one such example of a "smart guy": The IT crew of a factory have a sane policy of deny all traffic, except some well thought out rules. A supplier would like to open a remote connection for maintenance of the equipment. Since the process for opening some traffic for a short duration is so convoluted, they finally install a 3G card inside the equipment (without telling their customer, and they even make it a habit for future install) so that they can do maintenance whenever they want. The IT crew still thinks all is safe from outside...

TeMPOraL 6y ago
That's pretty much sabotage. Did someone in this story report it to the company management? This sounds like a clear lawsuit (or at the very least, contract termination) waiting to happen, and one that would scare other vendors away from such "clever" workarounds.
- leghifla 6y ago
  I don't know about management, but the guys on the factory floor were aware and happy with it. It made their job more convenient too, and the supplier was marketing its solutions as secure, so don't worry ;-)
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    > the guys on the factory floor were aware and happy with it. It made their job more convenient too, Oh, I don't doubt that :). > the supplier was marketing its solutions as secure ... but I very much doubt the truth of that marketing :). I think it's still a ticking liability timebomb. At some point some external auditor will discover the backdoor to the plant and heads will roll.
babas 6y ago
The 3G thing is extremely common. Even with HUGE suppliers. Including Siemens Energy. Their steam turbine systems come with a 3g connection as standard. I even think they won't do 24h/7d support without it.

TeMPOraL 6y ago

That's pretty much sabotage. Did someone in this story report it to the company management? This sounds like a clear lawsuit (or at the very least, contract termination) waiting to happen, and one that would scare other vendors away from such "clever" workarounds.

leghifla 6y ago
I don't know about management, but the guys on the factory floor were aware and happy with it. It made their job more convenient too, and the supplier was marketing its solutions as secure, so don't worry ;-)
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  > the guys on the factory floor were aware and happy with it. It made their job more convenient too, Oh, I don't doubt that :). > the supplier was marketing its solutions as secure ... but I very much doubt the truth of that marketing :). I think it's still a ticking liability timebomb. At some point some external auditor will discover the backdoor to the plant and heads will roll.

babas 6y ago

The 3G thing is extremely common. Even with HUGE suppliers. Including Siemens Energy. Their steam turbine systems come with a 3g connection as standard. I even think they won't do 24h/7d support without it.