[dlctr]

That's because a lot of industrial "control" is still done via classic OPC [1] for communication. That's Microsoft DCOM. I kid you not!!

And afaik they didn't have internet access directly for the control boxes at Natanz. Stuxnet got into the plant via USB sticks.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLE_for_process_control

[ufmace]

Oh god, DCOM memories. I've spent days in a futile attempt to get that working. The best demo of how bad DCOM is would be the existence of OPC Tunneler:

http://www.matrikonopc.com/products/opc-data-management/opc-...

DCOM is such a headache that these guys sell a $1000 program whose sole purpose is to make it easy to make remote DCOM connections. And I've recommended it as a screaming deal at that price. Given what it costs to get myself or a proper tech to a remote site for a day, I'd much rather use that and spend my time solving the actual problem than spend a day trying to get DCOM working before working on the actual problem.