Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: rbowman Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: LOTS of US Water Plants Hit by Hacks Date: 4 Aug 2026 17:53:48 GMT Lines: 41 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net q0LtG1NPHKi1uEUwHbW5RABHwZt06R5of2zlUhyLDvho8lstpk Cancel-Lock: sha1:vcDSbVgo9sIAFDjDAD3w7g8rCSU= sha256:isrwoeGw4nh4qTII+ni0xON4L89paz5PnZzoduAbqTg= User-Agent: Pan/0.165 (Kostiantynivka) Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:89558 On Tue, 4 Aug 2026 10:44:03 +0200, Carlos E. R. wrote: > I did a training course on them on 2002 and they certainly taught me > ladder language (can be changed to text something). Coming from standard > digital electronics, it is very weird on start, but then you grasp the > idea and it is very useful. When I started out I worked with physical relay logic. There were large NEMA 12 cabinets filled with octal relays, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4_uSYorMQk A timer required a 3 1/4" hole in the panel to mount it, enter the Greenlee hydraulic hole punch. The schematic on the drawing board was a ladder diagram. Debugging, so to speak, was done with a roll of 16 gauge MW wire, strippers, and a screwdriver. I never worked with PLCs and went directly to MCUs programmed either in assembler or FORTH. Despite its drawbacks FORTH is really useful for creating a domain specific 'language'. However industrial electricians had worked with relay logic for years, were familiar with the schematics, and were adept at trouble shooting. I thought the ladder interface was to ease them into the brave new world but it seems to have stuck. In it's way it was the original no-code IDE where you drag boxes around and connect them with no idea of what code is being generated. > > It would not surprise me that they can be connected "somehow" to the LAN > so that you can adjust parameters. Think of traffic lights, the city > control room adjusts the timings according to hour or actual traffic > conditions. Or they can obtain data which you want to save on computers. I doubt very much they are air gapped. A Mossad agent may have destroyed the Iranian centrifuges with a thumb drive but no way are people sneaking into multiple water plants. There is a huge body of apocalyptic literature but those scenarios are fiction, aren't they?