That last paragraph is the worst part. And capable of quite good security. If they even know anything about security, which I would doubt after some of the things I've seen. And even if they did, the people mentioned above would forbid it. All it'd take is a UUCP version of the Internet worm and a demon-dialer program to wreak havoc in these small systems.
Education is the answer here.
It is a sad but true fact that only an actual invasion of their systems will get any response out of them. The shutdown also affected BofA customers throughout the country. Traditionally, armies have had combat engineers to build makeshift bridges, ports, and even airfields in a hurry. GMT Conleth O'Connell sent a note to the soft-eng list about US uniformity legislation for software. I guess there's a risk lurking in there.