Google, the service so great it became a verb, can now add security risk to its roster of unintended results. The quest site played inadvertent host to remotely accessed Supervisory Control and knowledge Acquisition ( SCADA ) systems in a Black Hat conference demo led by FusionX’s Tom Parker. The safety company CTO walked attendees in the course of the steps required to achieve control of world utility infrastructure — power plants, for one — but stopped in need of actually engaging the vulnerable networks. Using a string of code, unique to a Programmable Logic Controller (the computers behind amusement park rides and assembly lines) Parker was capable of pull up a water treatment facility’s RTU pump, or even found its disaster-welcoming “1234″ password — at some stage in a Google search. Shaking your head in disbelief? We agree, but Parker reassured the gang these kind of outside attacks require a great deal of effort and coordination, and “can be extremely challenging to tug off.” Panic attack worn off yet? Good, now redirect those fears to the approaching day of robot-helmed reckoning .
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