Unfortunately, there is a significant number of people who are skilled at being a nuisance, stealing your information for profit, or bent on causing economic loss, harm, or destruction. Their reasons and motives aren’t always known. They’re motives don’t make sense. Oftentimes, they hide in jurisdictions that fall outside the justice system of the United States. Regardless of who or why, they are a problem.

While it is common knowledge that malicious software and actions have been plaguing computers and business/enterprise IT systems for many decades, it is less well known that there are vicious threats against those automation systems that make modern life pleasant, tolerable, and often critical to our survival. From traffic signals to sanitation and water, to electricity and HVAC, energy to manufacturing in many forms, building automation (e.g. elevators, access controls, etc.), automation is quietly operating behind the scenes.

The only invulnerable system to online cyberthreat is a system that is turned off — and that is impractical! Even so-called air gapped systems are potentially vulnerable to threats. Technological obscurity doesn’t offer much protection either!