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This may turn out to be a good thing in the long run. Why? People (and news reports) have been highlighting the lack of security around critical infrastructure

This may turn out to be a good thing in the long run. Why? People (and news reports) have been highlighting the lack of security around critical infrastructure like this for years. Now that folks are deciding to attack these targets, hopefully more budget and time goes into actually securing them vs just throwing up some fences around them. Granted, there could also be the power industries version of "security theater" but I'm going to err on the side of optimism.

ceejayoz 4y ago
Can such a widely distributed system even be protected from a determined actor?
- fbdab103 4y ago
  Certainly strikes me as impossible. There are so many vital things required to keep society functioning. Water treatment, electrical generation, electrical distribution, hospitals, medicine production, medicine storage, ISPs, cell phone towers, intercontinental internet cables, cargo rail, oil pipelines, petroleum refining, snow/ice removal... With increasing economies of scale and centralization, it is also possible that some large number of critical services might no longer be as distributed and resilient as they were 50 years ago. How many factories does Kraft/Tyson use to produce cereals or butcher meat?
noobermin 4y ago
>Granted, there could also be the power industries version of "security theater" but I'm going to err on the side of optimism. Literally this is all that happens. The only people who can be happy are those who sell security-ware. Someone could get in a car and go and on a rampage running over multiple people downtown, and the response from people will be to put guardrails on every street and have people wear helmets outside, or even better, not be outside in anything other than a car, where the right alternative is to make a society where such happenings are rare and unthinkable not because of guardrails but because people are taken care of on a material level so they're less likely to turn into maniacs.
landemva 4y ago
Regulated power industry typically is allowed by regulators a fixed % rate of return on the capital. More infra increases the number. They are already running up the capital base with the "green investments", so please don't increase the infra with security theater suggestions. If you are really concerned, bury a propane tank plumbed to a generator.

ceejayoz 4y ago

Can such a widely distributed system even be protected from a determined actor?

fbdab103 4y ago
Certainly strikes me as impossible. There are so many vital things required to keep society functioning. Water treatment, electrical generation, electrical distribution, hospitals, medicine production, medicine storage, ISPs, cell phone towers, intercontinental internet cables, cargo rail, oil pipelines, petroleum refining, snow/ice removal... With increasing economies of scale and centralization, it is also possible that some large number of critical services might no longer be as distributed and resilient as they were 50 years ago. How many factories does Kraft/Tyson use to produce cereals or butcher meat?

noobermin 4y ago

>Granted, there could also be the power industries version of "security theater" but I'm going to err on the side of optimism. Literally this is all that happens. The only people who can be happy are those who sell security-ware. Someone could get in a car and go and on a rampage running over multiple people downtown, and the response from people will be to put guardrails on every street and have people wear helmets outside, or even better, not be outside in anything other than a car, where the right alternative is to make a society where such happenings are rare and unthinkable not because of guardrails but because people are taken care of on a material level so they're less likely to turn into maniacs.

landemva 4y ago

Regulated power industry typically is allowed by regulators a fixed % rate of return on the capital. More infra increases the number. They are already running up the capital base with the "green investments", so please don't increase the infra with security theater suggestions. If you are really concerned, bury a propane tank plumbed to a generator.