Peril in the pipeline

The VAX computers hosting the SCADA system, the control room terminals, and workstations and the leak detection computer were connected via an Ethernet backbone network. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded if the SCADA system computers had remained responsive to the commands of the Olympic controllers, the controller operating the pipeline probably would have been able to initiate actions that would have prevented the pressure increase that ruptured the pipeline. Since the accident, Olympic took a number of steps to improve its SCADA system's performance, reliability, and security, including increasing computer processing speed and capacity and addressing physical security of the control center and electronic access security of the SCADA computers.