Well, instead of their laptops the two people seen near the pipeline segment could have just brought explosives. That would probably have been just as effective

Well, instead of their laptops the two people seen near the pipeline segment could have just brought explosives. That would probably have been just as effective. I guess they just didn't want to bother digging it up. The notion of any security goes out of the window pretty fast once theres physical access. That goes doubly when you realize that the same Windows 98 running your ATM is controlling pipelines and other safety relevant systems and some middle manager decided to replace local personnel with a serial-port-over-TCP-IP directly connected to the logic controller in charge.