In 2008 a pipeline transporting oil from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean suffered a catastrophic failure in the Turkish town of Refahiye. The most troubling aspect of the explosion was that sensors, alarms and cameras that closely monitor the 1,099 mile pipeline failed to register the event, which was eventually reported by a local worker 40 minutes later.
Turkey quickly blamed a system malfunction and Kurdish separatists jumped on the opportunity to take credit for the explosion. However, further investigation found that, “hackers had shut down alarms, cut off communications and super-pressurized the crude oil in the line,” which lead to the critical failure of the line.
Bloomberg has the rest of the story about how hackers disrupted critical infrastructure two full years before Israel and the U.S. unleashed Stuxnet on Iran’s nuclear program.