Feds say man broke into public water system and shut down safety processes

Nope, not Oldsmar. This is a whole other example of someone logging into a municipal SCADA system and attempting (unsuccessfully) to endanger public safety. Again, this is as much a story about a failure of process as it is about a failure of technology.

What, if anything, have you started doing differently since the news about the breach at Oldsmar?

An interesting article from Control Magazine on how sensor intelligence is changing the industrial process landscape. We have been seeing a move towards 'edge' intelligence for the past decade. As electronics continue to improve in processing power and reduce the overall footprint, there has never been a bigger opportunity to exploit the ability to carry out pre-processing of data, before it moves to the next stage. This enhances real-time decision-making by reducing overall system latency....

Commissioning control systems means spending time at industrial sites that were not designed with your comfort in mind. Luckily, Systems Integrators are gifted problem solvers who make the most of what’s around them. If you have improvised a workstation out of cinder blocks and plywood or used milk crates and bubble wrap to make a comfortable place to check your voicemail, you could win a $100 gift card. Just post your picture to the Automation Village forum by April 21st, 2021.

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With online sales soaring, in particular since COVID, retailers have been attempting to squeeze every last point of efficiency from their systems to get product from A to B as quickly as possible. Automated picking warehouses / fulfillment centers work at lightning speed to process orders and get them out the door to consumers.

Ocado has been improving its systems over the last few years to improve grocery “picking”. They claim to be able to pick an average grocery order in around...