THE MYSTERY

A municipal water plant was stuck with an unresponsive system of 28 PLCs and an AWOL dealer. The case of the obsolete PLCs. Every vendor the client talked to insisted a whole new system was the only way to get the plant back up to speed again.

THE CLUES

The PLCs were running on IBM OS/2, an obsolete system. The lead CSI on the scene noticed traces of Windows NT floating around on the hard drives.

THE PERP

It turns out the unscruplous dealer had bought up a batch of obsolete PLCs and was traveling around the region selling them, and then fled the scene once they needed servicing.

THE SOLUTION

The ACES CSI disassembled the drives and performed forensic programming. He tracked down all the NT files, restored them, and reconverted the images. Reviving the original Windows NT software started the water flowing without the immediate implementation of a whole new system.

CASE CLOSED