this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
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Not only cloud infrastructure, tons of industrial automation devices are more or less open on the Internet. Best case that's just a few minutes downtime in a factory, worst case someone fries the grid and destroys water treatment plants.
And even the actual applications being written for the government aren't that great. The lowest bidder gets the contract, and security is really easy to cheap out on, if you're doing just enough to not be legally liable - which isn't hard.
The older I get and the more insights in the inner workings of the technical infrastructure I get, the more I'm surprised we're not actively collapsing right now. It's scary how abysmal security is and it's scary how unprepared society is. Just as a hint: the European power grid spans the entire EU, Balkans, Turkey, Ukraine. There's no plan how to restart the grid, if it shuts down entirely. None. Complete terra incognita.