We've known and talked pretty openly in mainstream media about how trivial an attack like this would be. Seriously can't get away from the gut feeling that this may be the tip of an iceberg here.

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/intentional-vandalism-leaves-38000-customers-without-power-moore-county-sheriffs-office-says/SNCENVLP5NH5VCBOEI4G2G5CZY/

State of Emergency declared, FBI investigating power grid attack in Moore County, sheriff says

A state of emergency has been declared after the electrical power grid was “intentionally attacked” causing a major power outage in Moore County.

WSOC TV
@alyssam_infosec this is so significant. ICS security is something we really need to tighten up. Thank you for sharing this!
@kevinthomas @alyssam_infosec it is a very slow process especially when there is sometimes active resistance by SCADA operations and maintenance people to implementing sensible security measures until there is an incident.
@msh @alyssam_infosec so well said Mark I could not agree more but we must deal with this.

@kevinthomas @alyssam_infosec yup...that is literally more than half of my job.

In some parts of the ICS/SCADA world there is a strongly reactionary culture. Once it is "working" don't touch it! Leave those MODBUS and VNC servers open on public IPs don't worry we used different ports to hide them! Ugh what is this VPN thing and these keys they are so annoying change it back!  

That combined with infosec kinda failing at usability makes it quite a challenge.

@msh @kevinthomas @alyssam_infosec

My pet peeves:
1. People whining about minor inconveniences that endanger the infrastructure.

@NosirrahSec @msh @alyssam_infosec agree! Inconveniences if necessary can prevent this entire rabbit hole.

@kevinthomas @msh @alyssam_infosec

I guarantee that the incident will always outweigh the inconvenience. 100% of the time.