Short Takes – 9-30-22

Dragos outlines threat perspective of cyber threat activities targeting water and wastewater systems in GCC region. IndustrialCyber.co article. Reads like an intel agency report. Pull quote: “Dragos said that the continued growth in the WWS [water and wastewater systems] sector, reaching around 6 percent annual growth as of 2009, along with desalination plants under construction promoting future growth, will likely attract cyber criminals and other adversaries to increase their activities, especially against small- to medium-size WWS organizations.”

NASA May Let Billionaire Astronaut and SpaceX Lift Hubble Telescope. NYTimes.com article. This is what commercial space industry looks like. Pull quote: “NASA announced on Thursday that it and SpaceX had signed an agreement to conduct a six-month study to see if one of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules could be used to raise the altitude of the Hubble Space Telescope, potentially further extending the lifetime of the 32-year-old instrument.”

Exquisitely thin membranes can slash energy spent refining crude oil into fuel and plastic. NewsWise.com article. Lots of work still to be done but looks like it may be a less hazardous process. Pull quote: “Membrane technology that can separate the molecules in crude oil by their different sizes and classes could be a far more energy efficient process, consuming 90% less energy than distillation columns. Exceptionally thin nanomembranes have proved successful for extracting fresh water from sea water by rejecting the salt while allowing the water to permeate through reverse osmosis (RO) process. The researchers sought to separate hydrocarbons from crude oil by a parallel method.”

Methane Emissions From Oil and Gas Wells Are Much Higher Than Thought, Study Shows. WSJ.com article. Problems with flare operations. Pull quote: “The study showed that about 500,000 metric tons of methane a year were bypassing flares at U.S. facilities. Worldwide, flares at oil and gas wells released eight million tons of methane into the atmosphere in 2021, the International Energy Agency said in a report issued in August.”

House sends stopgap funding bill to avoid government shutdown to Biden’s desk. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “More than 200 Republicans voted against the bill on Friday as GOP leaders accuse Democrats of not doing more to address border security, supply chains and inflation. Republicans in both chambers have also taken issue with the length of the continuing resolution, with many pushing to put off working out spending levels for the coming fiscal year until January, when the next Congress begins.”