I'm not a pipeline expert, but I've been doing computers sense the early 90s. You have a pipe. It has pumps and valves. You have a computer that controls it all. The computer gets hacked. UNPLUG THE DAM COMPUTER... and plug in another one. Then restart the pumps. If they are too incompetent to figure out a workaround then get the hell out of the way and let someone else try.
If there is one thing I've learned with computers its that the guy at the console is god. There is no such thing as taking over from a remote location. Anyone that tells you differently has been watching too many movies. Send real actual human beings out the the pumps, unplug the dam computer and just turn the pump on manually. Yeah, a person might have to watch the pressure and flow rates etc rather than the computer. So the hell what. Get the dam gas flowing again morons.
You're making my point for me. It probibly takes two dozen computer clusters to control something that large. So the bad guys got control of what one maybe two systems. UNPLUG the fucking network cable(or the power), replace/repair that system, and restart it all. Sure you need to check everything out. That takes what a day? Maybe two?
I'll say it again. The idea that some dude in his basement has the power to remotely control something so large as a pipeline is pure movie FICTION. It can't happen. If it REALLY is happening then that is the single most poorly designed security/computer control setup in the history of computers. AND its being run by the biggest bunch of idiots ever to sit at the console of a server.
Now let's talk about the REAL reason the pipeline is down. A bunch of bureaucrats and/or politicians are worried about profit margins or they are just using this as an excuse to keep it shut down, or they are punishing the southern states because they lifted WuFlu restrictions, or they are idiots who are frozen in inaction... on and on... the list is so long I can't type out all the possible reasons.
There is no way you will ever convince me that a dozen smart technical guys like me can't fix this in a day or two. That's not how this shit works. Its always the fucking bosses. There is something else going on here that has jack shit to do with hackers.