Re: SCADA systems running windows
I have a friend who works on a production site and they have a CNC machine which is still controlled by XP. The manufacturer won't upgrade the software for the CNC machine, if they want to use Windows 7, they need to buy a new CNC machine for high six figures, which given that the old one still works fine and it projected to keep working for another half a decade or so, before it needs replacing, that isn't a worthwhile investment.
That means that she has isolated the XP machine from the production network, which annoys the CNC manufacturers support people. When there is a problem, they say, "open Teamviewer." Which of course doesn't help, because the XP machine is isolated from all networks. The CNC support then tell the customer to put the XP machine in the network, to which the reply is, only when the CNC support provide software that runs on a currnetly supported and patched OS... So the CNC support has to do remote support using the telephone and an engineer sitting in front of the PC describing what is going on on the screen...
Not ideal, but at least they have the right attitude to the security of such "IoT" devices - known security holes and no patches = no network for you!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
