Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
Something Mr. Thomas said in his article got me to thinking. He said a particular Red Chinese target is the company that supplies most of the nat gas and petroleum pipeline remote control software in North American. Now, we ran all kinds of complicated pipeline systems just fine for decades before computers came along. So I have two questions for those of you who know a lot about such things.

First, would the pipeline infrastructure of the 1950s be vulnerable to a cyber attack from Red China or anywhere else? I am guessing it would not be.

Second, do you think we might someday go back to such manual system with land line communications in order to be more secure from lethal cyber attack? I know I am probably getting something wrong but the general thrust of the question is about whether older tech might be better in the long run.
The Chinese are in the process of building an enormous pipeline network spanning vast distances and extremely hostile terrain. Why would you assume that their interest in pipeline controls is aimed at disrupting US pipelines? Wouldn't Occam's razor suggest that their own control technology is not that good, they know it, and they think stealing upgrades is easier and cheaper than buying or developing them?

Sending American industry back to the dark ages in an effort to insulate it from hypothetical cyber attacks seems a bit over the top to me. These systems may have run "just fine" in the 50s to a casual observer, but I suspect that if you talked to those in the industry they would tell you that the way they do things now is far more effective and far more efficient, and not just in using fewer workers. The technology developed for a reason.