

Hackers hit US water plant - javajones
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/foreign-hackers-broke-into-illinois-water-plant-control-system-industry-expert-says/2011/11/18/gIQAgmTZYN_blog.html

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1point2
Electric motors burnout all the time - most systems would have a separate
controller (PLC and/or a Variable Frequency Drive) actually controlling the
pump motor - normally able to run standalone (because the pump sites are often
remote to the SCADA and comms. do go down) - its a long shot to suggest a
burnt out pump motor was caused by a compromised SCADA.

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javajones
I believe they said that they had been turning the power on and off for a
while, trying to short circuit it.

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1point2
Cheers - I must have missed that bit - sorry - motors are rated for n starts
per hour - because during the start they consume or convert quite a bit more
energy then steady state running and get a lot hotter - when they do get too
hot the insulation on their little wires fails and they burn out - which does
indeed cause a short circuit - it's just that the motors are rarely controlled
by the SCADA directly and are more likely to be controlled by the water level
in a tank or the pressure in a pipe (using a variable frequency drive) - the
control loops are normally tight and local - SCADA's are remote and expected
to fail, or go offline. But yes access to the SCADA could indeed be used to
influence a motors starting and stopping - so thanks. Humm a motor starting
and stopping all the time smacks of a faulty water level gauge or pressure
gauge - it get's so hard to to be sure in such matters.

