Security experts at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) have analyzed the trends and consequences for security threats within industrial systems. The report reveals a tenfold increase in successful cyber attacks on process and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems since 2000. Many of the attacked systems were responsible for the operation of critical services such as electricity, petroleum production, nuclear power plants, water distribution, transportation and communications.

Process control and automation systems have traditionally been seen as immune to external attack, as systems were based on proprietary technologies and isolated from other IT systems. By integrating all equipment in networks based on wireless technology or the internet a new situation is created where hackers, viruses, trojans easily can access the company through the technical systems.

Informationen from BCIT can be found here