I’ve spent 30 years in high-vis vests and hard hats. I’ve seen vendors come and go, but the Windows XP machine in Substation B is eternal.
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IT kid with a beard told me my "legacy hardware" is a security vulnerability. Son, that "legacy hardware" has been running 24/7 since before your parents met at a Coldplay concert. It doesn't have an IP address. You can't "hack" a mechanical relay. Go back to your standing desk
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Barbara asked why I woke her up at 5:30 to "go look at the flares." Because, Barbara, that's not just fire. That's American energy, a pilot that hasn't gone out in years, and a relief system doing exactly what it was engineered to do. She nodded her head and smiled.
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IT found 40 devices on the plant network they "didn't recognize" and helpfully removed them from the switch config.
Those were the boiler controls.
I'd like to report a ticket.
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Vendor told my CISO I was "resistant to innovation." My CISO told the vendor "Bob has kept this plant running for 22 years." Vendor said "but our platform......" Jerry said "TWENTY...TWO....YEARS..." Meeting adjourned. We went to lunch. Good man Jerry....See ya at Jr's game at 6
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IT enabled classic spanning tree on the plant network. Convergence time: 30 to 50 seconds. I/O connection timeout: milliseconds.
You do the math. The line already did.
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My network has been American-made since day one. Cisco. Motorola. Budweiser in the break room. Stars and stripes on the hard hat. Some of us didn't need the FCC to tell us what was obvious. But I'm glad they finally got the memo. Welcome to the party
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IT ran a "quick network discovery scan" on the plant floor. Took down two PLCs older than the kid who ran the scan. He said "it's just nmap, it's harmless." Son, that PLC has 64KB of memory and the emotional stability of a soap bubble. Nothing is harmless here.
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IT said our plant network was "flat and unsegmented" and they'd fix it over the weekend. Monday am nothing could talk to anything. Their firewall was blocking port 502. I asked if they knew what Modbus was. He said "is that a band?"
I went home. Linda knew not to ask.
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The best OT security product in the world loses to one controls engineer who has the knowledge and respect of me and my team ..........and he or she says no. Spend your time to get to know these folks.
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Vendor just dropped a deuce in my f'ing secret bathroom that only 3 of us walk far enough to use. That's issue number 1. Issue number 2 is that it won't flush and had to be broken up.
Vendor.....You are officially in my crosshairs. Good luck.
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Three things I'm grateful for this Labor Day:
20+ years of uptime at my plant
An American Budweiser that's currently 34 degrees and perfect
The fact that I don't have a vendor meeting until Tuesday
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Happy Labor Day. To the plant operators, the guys pulling cable at 2 AM, the engineers keeping 30yearold systems alive with duct tape and prayer. Today is YOUR day. Not the vendor's or consultant's day. Not the guy who put "OT thought leader" in his LinkedIn bio. YOURS. Enjoy it
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I love channel sales people. They take me to the best dinners and best golf courses. And never ask for the business.
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PSA: The best "zero-trust policy" ever invented is a heavy-duty padlock on the control cabinet and a pair of steel-toe boots at the door.
TIA - Bobby
#automation #ot #otsecurity #cybersecurity
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"I've been in OT for 5 years."
That's adorable.
Some of my PLC batteries have more seniority than you.
#otcybersecurity #automation #OT #Cybersecurity #PLC #HMI
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PSA: If a vendor uses the words "synergy," "cloud-native," or "pane of glass" more than twice in the first five minutes of a meeting, you are legally permitted to walk out and lock the gate behind them.
TIA - Bobby
#ot #automation #otsec #cybersecurity
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10:30 AM. Lawn's done. Garage is squared away. Slacks have a crease you could split a Modbus packet with. 1.5 hours until Budweiser. Some people call that discipline. I call it change management.
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PSA: An "autonomous AI agent" isnt a real tech. It cant smell a burning motor, and it doesnt know which way to turn a rusted 3/4-inch flange. If I catch any "agents" touching my PLC logic, ll archive them to a 3.5-inch floppy disk and toss it in the flare pit.
TIA - Bobby
#OT
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IT scheduled a "quick patch window" for Wednesday at 2 PM. On a line that runs 24/7. I asked what "quick" meant. They said 45 minutes. I asked what "window" meant. They didn't answer. Meeting over. I am the firewall you didn't budget for.
#Automation #OTSecurity
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