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Comment by sevensor | Hacker News Reader

I once encountered a guy who was setting up systems so that you could control a water treatment plant from your ipad at home. His attitude was, "Modbus on one side, ethernet on the other, what could possibly go wrong?" Lots, I told him. A lot of things could go wrong.

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Unfortunately, my municipality of 2,200 users is planning to do this.

Also, all water meters are being replaced so they can be read remotely without a human physically using an electronic meter reader.

>Also, all water meters are being replaced so they can be read remotely without a human physically using an electronic meter reader.

Those are extremely widespread already. And they're pretty open. I wouldn't personally be too worried about any potential exploits since they're simply broadcast only systems and the worst that could probably happen is your'd get a jacked up water bill.

Dear Human,

You have unpaid WATER BILL of -2147483648 dollars.

Report immediately to INCINERATOR145 for processing.

Please have a kindly day,

ROBOTOVERLORD69420

I don't really see water meters as being an issue. There aren't any control systems involved.

Worst case you can tamper with the readings, but you can't actually cause damaging effects.

There might be privacy implications for people who don't want to be drought-shamed for having a long shower.

having setup many control systems over the years I can confirm that the state of the art is that bad. it's amazing just how blazé they are about security. also, terrifying.

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