In a perfect world, maybe there would be unlimited budgets for small rural water districts to have 24/7 onsite staff and run highly secured networks.
I regularly work with these sorts of water districts (larger, better funded ones as well). In reality, some of these small districts may only have 2 or 3 SCADA operators on staff. Sending them home with a pager, a tablet, a VPN password, and some overtime pay is a lot easier to get past the city council then taking on another two employees to cover the night shift for those rare events that need to be handled ASAP.
I could share some real horror stories, but it wouldnt be professionally appropriate. Suffice to say, this story did not surprise me at all.
I regularly work with these sorts of water districts (larger, better funded ones as well). In reality, some of these small districts may only have 2 or 3 SCADA operators on staff. Sending them home with a pager, a tablet, a VPN password, and some overtime pay is a lot easier to get past the city council then taking on another two employees to cover the night shift for those rare events that need to be handled ASAP.
I could share some real horror stories, but it wouldnt be professionally appropriate. Suffice to say, this story did not surprise me at all.