[arin-ppml] Fairness of banning IPv4 allocations to some categoryof organization

[Robert E. Seastrom]

Craig Finseth <craig.finseth at state.mn.us> writes:

> 	...
>    I don't think anyone is quite insane enough to suggest putting power
>    meters on the public Internet.  Yes, a smart grid will require
> 	...
>
> You'd be surprised, then.  I've seen plans that effectively wind up
> doing just that.

Nothing ever surprises me in terms of stupidity at the planning stage.

The hope is that by the time people get around to actually doing a
rollout that the design has been subject to review by competent
network and security architects, who will no doubt give a firm "hell
no" to putting that kind of equipment on the Internet.

My professional opinion here is based not only on the low end CPUs and
low end security capabilities found in the aforementioned meters, but
also on the principle of least exposure corollary to the principle of
least privilege.  AMR is one thing, but as soon as ACD (automatic
connect/disconnect) and other "real smart grid" features come into the
mix, there's substantial incentive for nogoodniks to get involved.

That's before you even get to "real SCADA" at substations and in the
field.  Our stated policy on multiple-customer-affecting SCADA at
$PREVIOUS_JOB was that our involvement with *that* infrastructure
would be limited to giving them strands and waves.  Stakes are too
high to do anything more.

-r