Pump Scenario

  There's no such thing as a computer virus, only 
unsafe computing.
    Okay, okay okay!  If you surf the internet you 
could contract a malware, or a worm, or a bug or 
something.  It could happen, but there are precautions 
you can take.  What are those precautions?  Let's 
brainstorm.
    For one, you could not surf the internet.  
Unlikely, eh!  What if you didn't open any links that 
downloaded things to your computer that you don't 
trust.  Good idea.  Research the companies and sites 
you connect to and know their reputation.  You wouldn't 
expect Sears to have a virus, would you, and you can be 
pretty well be assured that they've done all they can 
to prevent malicious code.
    Here's one that you're not going to like.  Erase 
your computer and start over.  Yes!  There is an 
absolute way you can be assured that your computer is 
safe.  Erase the hard drive and reinstall the operating 
system, and any programs and files you want to use.
    Starting over requires some organization.  You need 
a list of all the software you use and want to install, 
and some sort of back up system for your personal files 
(which we should have anyway).  Then when you want to 
use your computer on the internet, to make a financial 
transaction for example, make sure that's the first 
stop after you've reinstalled your operating system.  
Just organize your banking once a month to coincide 
with your computer cleansing.
     Granted, that's asking a lot for the home 
computer, but business systems should consider it, and 
put into place.  It might even make sense, if you can 
afford it, to have a second computer for financial 
transactions only, and then erase it once a month or 
so, whenever you process important personal or 
financial info on it.
    Of course there are some situations where you'll 
want to transfer information over the network, be it 
the internet or local network.  Eighty percent of 
internet traffic is on ports other than port 80, which 
we all surf for fun and profit.
     Let's say you're a water plant and you want a pump 
to report to your controller machine, periodically, 
flow rates.  The pump's electronic sensor connected to 
a local machine triggers file storage and then a timer 
causes that machine to dial the internet and call your 
main office computer, via port 14448 and uploads the 
file.  Your firewall is so intense on port 14448 that 
only the pump can call your computer through that port, 
which specifically patterned (enveloped) data.
   Let's say your pump also has a regulator, in case 
you want to shut it off remotely.  You don't want 
saboteurs attacking your system and shutting it off 
when you don't want to, so once again you pattern and 
encrypt the information before it is allowed to out 
over port 24223 and switch the pump off.  Imagine the 
firewall for that and with a little obfuscation you've 
reduced the chances to almost zero of a war games 
scenario for your pump.
   There are no absolutes and your not going to get the 
Princeton eggheads, who got most of the government 
encryption work in the nineties and early 00's, to say 
your pump is perfectly safe.  So when you try to sell 
that to stock holders at the next meeting, good luck, 
because they want everything absolutely secure: no 
'ifs' 'ands' or 'buts'.  That's your job and you darn 
well better do.  So you lie for a bigger budget.  Well 
you don't lie actually.  Just when your trying to 
explain the budget you describe scenarios that could 
happen and find out that's what people want to hear 
about security, when you know full and well that your 
pump is safe, unless Bob in accounting sells the access 
codes, which you don't have any control over, so thank 
you very much.


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