Schools warned over hackable heating systems
bbc.com
bbc.com
Or maybe if you release a product with a network jack that replaces a legacy item you put safeguards in place and don't expect your customer to hire a electrician who also happens to have a cyber security degree...
I've started training another young engineer in training in the work I do since I can't keep up with the workload and he's questioned every single piece of my setup guides to deal with security. "Why do we need to do it this way? Isn't it easier to skip that?" "How come we block this? Why is that feature disabled?" etc. etc.
Heck, I've found that vendors are frequently pretty upfront about their devices and hide no secrets that their devices are exploitable if you go against their recommendations for basic security. But as soon as a know-it-all hears of how convenient opening a firewall port is or enabling config access from the public interface its a fight to explain to him why it's a bad idea. Maybe it hasn't blown up yet but we don't want an incident before we do it the right way.
Since a number of those machines were inevitably pwned, and had to be cleaned up by none other than yours truly, I learned the extremely painful lesson of what happens when you sacrifice security in the name of usability (it was so easy - you only need to remember one short password!)
As an aside - he was just as bad a boss on the software development side of the job.
On the bright side it was interesting observing how various automated attacks succeeded in installing botnet C&C software, and how it worked to conceal itself.
Edit: Of course I'll never know about the most sophisticated versions that escaped my detection :) Fortunately that was more than a decade ago.
We have a hot water central heating system that distributes heat to the apartments buildings. To improve efficiency, this system was upgraded with "weather forecast" functionality. The supplier stated that this system would not work behind NAT or a firewall, and required a public IP address, so it was connected directly to the ISP's switch.
A couple of years later, in the summer, the system got cracked and the heating system was turned on and the system temperature was increased to the maximum. Because all radiators have (analog) thermostats on them, it didn't affect the indoor temperature, and it took a week until it was noticed.
If nobody had noticed, it would have resulted in a huge district heating bill. And if done on large scale, I guess it could overload or underload power plants (if using electric heating). So I disagree that there are little incentives (to bad guys) to crack heating systems.
If you really wanted to be malicious, you would curtail fresh air, rather than cut off heat. It would be harder to notice, and would give you an attack that didn't depend on cold weather.
And arguably the long-term consequences would be greater. The kids who got cold would bundle up and complain, leading to a (possibly energy-wasting) fix. The kids who got a low-grade headache and fatigue every afternoon might conclude "I'm just not cut out for learning."
Hackable fridges, microwaves, showers...The possibilities are endless. Maybe Anon can hack Ajit Pai so he only has cold showers from now on :P.
"Pool on the roof must have a leak."
The excuse for this was always that "the district controls it from downtown."
I don't know whether or not that was true, but a hacker certainly couldn't have done any worse.
http://woodtv.com/2015/06/11/1980s-computer-controls-grps-he...
I, too, can use Shodan.