Re: LOTS of US Water Plants Hit by Hacks

On Tue, 4 Aug 2026 10:44:03 +0200, Carlos E. R. wrote:


> I did a training course on them on 2002 and they certainly taught me
> ladder language (can be changed to text something). Coming from standard
> digital electronics, it is very weird on start, but then you grasp the
> idea and it is very useful.

When I started out I worked with physical relay logic. There were large 
NEMA 12 cabinets filled with octal relays, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4_uSYorMQk

A timer required a 3 1/4" hole in the panel to mount it, enter the 
Greenlee hydraulic hole punch. The schematic on the drawing board was a 
ladder diagram. Debugging, so to speak, was done with a roll of 16 gauge 
MW wire, strippers, and a screwdriver.

I never worked with PLCs and went directly to MCUs programmed either in 
assembler or FORTH. Despite its drawbacks FORTH is really useful for 
creating a domain specific 'language'. 

However industrial electricians had worked with relay logic for years, 
were familiar with the schematics, and were adept at trouble shooting. I 
thought the ladder interface was to ease them into the brave new world but 
it seems to have stuck. In it's way it was the original no-code IDE where 
you drag boxes around and connect them with no idea of what code is being 
generated. 

> 
> It would not surprise me that they can be connected "somehow" to the LAN
> so that you can adjust parameters. Think of traffic lights, the city
> control room adjusts the timings according to hour or actual traffic
> conditions. Or they can obtain data which you want to save on computers.

I doubt very much they are air gapped. A Mossad agent may have destroyed 
the Iranian centrifuges with a thumb drive but no way are people sneaking 
into multiple water plants.

There is a huge body of apocalyptic literature but those scenarios are 
fiction, aren't they?