Meters Are Getting Smarter, But Are They Secure?

The wonder of the Internet—its ability to provide both instant and constant access to data—is merging with our electricity meters and with the appliances inside our homes as the vision of the new, improved, smart grid comes into focus. But, just as with the dawn of the Internet, the smart meter—a key component of the smart grid—might usher in a whole host of privacy problems and data land mines.

That’s the finding of Joshua Pennell and Michael Davis, president and senior security consultant, respectively, for computer security firm IOActive. The pair have published an article in energy industry publication Energy Pulse describing their findings on the security protections—or lack thereof—being built into smart meters (also known as advanced metering infrastructure, AMI meters).

They claim that IOActive researchers have been able to hack into smart meters and found that they could manipulate them in a number of ways that are representative of major weaknesses in hardware design. “Vulnerabilities in the smart grid could cause utilities to lose system control of their metering infrastructure to unauthorized third parties, exposing them to fraud, extortion attempts, lawsuits, widespread system interruption, massive blackouts or worse,” they note in the article. … – CLICK HERE to Continue Reading and Comment

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Meters Are Getting Smarter, But Are They Secure?