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> companies are chasing profits at any cost What does that mean? This was addressed in the article. Critical services are on the internet because remote worke

> companies are chasing profits at any cost What does that mean? This was addressed in the article. Critical services are on the internet because remote workers need access to them. I don't see how profits factor into it.

mensetmanusman 6y ago
Those remote workers wouldn’t have to be ‘remote’ if there were other workers hired on site.
- rhodozelia 6y ago
  Many sites are in the middle of nowhere so it is inconvenient to go to them, so accessing them over a network saves a lot of travel time and cost.
  - mensetmanusman 6y ago
    This is true for nuclear weapons infrastructure. Paying for commutes and lodging are used there, might be useful to consider?
    - rhodozelia 6y ago
      At one extreme a Nuclear weapons accident can kill millions of people and destroy the environment of a large area for a long time. And then a sliding scale of risk and cost of getting hacked vs savings and increases in efficiency resulting from remote access. Are you for or against Tesla having remote access to all of the Tesla vehicles? Are their OTA updates innovative or reckless?
- PeterisP 5y ago
  What "on site"? The various valves that need to be controlled remotely often are just a box, perhaps even underground, in a place where's no buildings for people to stay - a mechanical team can access the hardware on-site, but building and maintaining an actual office on each site is not practical. The same applies for power grids - you can't staff every substation with people. A remote operator can manage dozens of such sites, a single "local" person might be close to one point, but the next control point is going to be miles away, so you either need much, much more people to station one at every valve, or have a situation where flipping a switch in all the "sites" is very slow because requires the "local" person to drive many miles visiting each location. No, there's a reasonable objective need for this management to be actually remote - there's a discussion on how this should be implemented in a secure way, but it does have to be remote.
tbihl 6y ago
Without the overhead of reaching many locations, fewer engineers/technicians can more efficiently operate the whole thing remotely.

mensetmanusman 6y ago

Those remote workers wouldn’t have to be ‘remote’ if there were other workers hired on site.

rhodozelia 6y ago
Many sites are in the middle of nowhere so it is inconvenient to go to them, so accessing them over a network saves a lot of travel time and cost.
- mensetmanusman 6y ago
  This is true for nuclear weapons infrastructure. Paying for commutes and lodging are used there, might be useful to consider?
  - rhodozelia 6y ago
    At one extreme a Nuclear weapons accident can kill millions of people and destroy the environment of a large area for a long time. And then a sliding scale of risk and cost of getting hacked vs savings and increases in efficiency resulting from remote access. Are you for or against Tesla having remote access to all of the Tesla vehicles? Are their OTA updates innovative or reckless?
PeterisP 5y ago
What "on site"? The various valves that need to be controlled remotely often are just a box, perhaps even underground, in a place where's no buildings for people to stay - a mechanical team can access the hardware on-site, but building and maintaining an actual office on each site is not practical. The same applies for power grids - you can't staff every substation with people. A remote operator can manage dozens of such sites, a single "local" person might be close to one point, but the next control point is going to be miles away, so you either need much, much more people to station one at every valve, or have a situation where flipping a switch in all the "sites" is very slow because requires the "local" person to drive many miles visiting each location. No, there's a reasonable objective need for this management to be actually remote - there's a discussion on how this should be implemented in a secure way, but it does have to be remote.

tbihl 6y ago

Without the overhead of reaching many locations, fewer engineers/technicians can more efficiently operate the whole thing remotely.