http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35893040

Why are these things anywhere near a net connection?

Because people are a) lazy and b) it is cool to be able to get a bit more water, when you are sitting in the bath?

The sad fact is the cost of using people to go round checking thousands of pumps etc located at very remote locations doesn't make much financial sense when you can do it remotely.

So virtually every pumping stations, sluice gate etc in developed countries will be remotely monitored / controlled to some extent or other.

That's what I've had assumed, but you then can't complain about hackers because anyone with a brain cell knows this is the outcome. It's need lessly putting the public in grave danger just to save money, not that I'm surprised.

The flip side is without remote 24/7 monitoring so you know immediately if something is wrong you would probably only check the pump manually every 6 months.