SCADA Systems and the Department of Energy

Let me preface this: I only know what SCADA is because I was plotting a post-apocalyptic novel in the past. And let’s be honest, the nuclear war trope was trite even back in the 2010s. This is why alarms started to ring in my mind when I read this yesterday.

DOGE personnel, who are not part of any federal department, have been getting access to government systems everywhere. They are at the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, and the Department of Energy.

You can bet they install back doors everywhere, but I want to explain SCADA today. I am linking to Wikipedia since it’s the least technical material I can find. Usually, this is one of those very dull subjects that mostly engineers care about or the fine folks at the CIA. Or writers looking for a crazy premise for fiction. Oh, the CIA used Stuxnet to target the Iranian nuclear program over a decade ago. It did a lot of damage. You might want to watch this documentary preview to understand how that works.

And I admit, as I researched that post-apocalyptic novel, I started eating research papers for lunch. It was going to be the plot device to bring the grid down. And, of course, there is a weakness to my plan, mind you, in a novel. Our grid has a defense mechanism. You can bring sections down, controlled…