Slashdot Mirror
Vulnerabilities Discovered In Prison SCADA Systems
phaedrus5001 writes with an excerpt from an Ars Technica article: "Researchers have demonstrated a vulnerability in the computer systems used to control facilities at federal prisons that could allow an outsider to remotely take them over, doing everything from opening and overloading cell door mechanisms to shutting down internal communications systems. ... The researchers began their work after [John] Strauchs was called in by a warden to investigate an incident in which all the cell doors on one prison's death row spontaneously opened."
Slashdot ate the link. here:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/07/prison-plc-vulnerabilities/
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
Last time I was in prison (on work) was a long time ago, before digital controls became ubiquitous. Opening every door to every cell would have been a big problem where the worst criminals were. (Some were known to do fun things like throw shit (literally) on guards when they walked by.) However, to get out of a cell block, and again to get out of the inner yard, and again to get outside of the prison walls, one had to walk through 10 foot long vestibules with guards at each end. The doors of the vestibule were hard-wired so that one could not open unless the other was closed.