Not all cybersecurity risk is created equal. Case in point: when Sony was hacked, information was stolen, systems were wiped, and society was temporarily deprived of a Seth Rogan movie. These were mostly bad outcomes, and Sony certainly suffered a significant financial loss.
Now, imagine a similar attack on an oil refinery where compromised systems include the proprietary industrial control systems that manage volatile processes. When I say volatile, I’m referring to processes where a boiler is heating oil by hundreds of degrees separating molecules to produce gasoline and other products.
