Why On Earth Would You Put SCADA On The Internet?

By Chris Little

This heated debate continues to rage on in boardrooms, online forums, and tradeshow floors around the world.

It pits SCADA teams, seeking to maximize system uptime, against IT departments, working to keep their systems secure. The divide has become especially acute as municipal monitoring and control infrastructure rapidly expands towards an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

What follows is a very brief overview of why water and wastewater utilities choose to allow remote access and what steps should be taken to minimize the risk.