Security company, Core Security. has found a security hole in the software which operates power stations.

Suitelink software is used to run power stations, oil refineries and production lines. All it would take is for attackers to crash the software by sending an outsize packet data to a certain port on the computer running Suitelink.

The company that makes the software, Wonderware, has patched the software, but manufacturing and similar industries are slower about updating software than the IT industry. Hackers' preferred method of getting into a power plants system is by getting employees to down load malware, he said.