Smart Grid Blog

As cyber security becomes increasingly important in the fabric of American culture and government, more money and research is being put towards securing the smart grid. This so-called smart grid refers to the system that delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital technology. This is modernized electrical system being used to address problems of energy independence, global warming, and emergency resilience issues. Cyber attacks on such a system could cause massive damage and could possibly bring an entire community or nation to its knees. Pike Research recently stated that annual spending on smart grid cybersecurity will more than triple from $1.2 billion to $3.7 billion in 2015.

via Possible Hack Leads to Increased Spending on Smart Grid Power Protection | BrickHouse Security Blog.

There is a growing anxiety that smart meter deployment being stimulated by Federal stimulus money and pressure to move faster from state utility regulators will swamp the data boat of many, if not most, utilities. As I started digging into this issue I quickly discovered I was not the only one, nor the first, to raise it. Last May, Beth Pariseau wrote extensively on this Smart Grid storage topic for Searchstorage.com.

via If Smart Grid Data Demands Don’t Swamp Utilities, the Hackers will! « Searching for Insight.

You know a topic has suddenly gone mainstream when 60 Minutes directs its in-depth lens on it. Last night the CBS News show aired a piece called Sabotaging the System, which takes a look at the very real threat that cyber hackers pose on the power grid. What struck me most from the show was that there are actually already quite a few documented cases of damage done to the power grid using IT networks.

One of the most famous, points out 60 Minutes, happened at the Department of Energy’s Idaho lab back in 2007. Dubbed the “Aurora” project, CNN released this video (shown above) that year and now thanks to YouTube we can watch it over and over again on the Internets.

via Smart Grid Security: Remembering Aurora.

Experts say the compulsory monitors, designed to reduce energy consumption, could be programmed to cripple the national grid or to steal valuable household data, breaching the privacy of millions.

The government wants every home in Britain to have the devices, which give users information on how to save energy and send real-time data direct to utility companies, eliminating the need for customers to stay at home for meter readings or to receive estimated bills.

They also pave the way for a national ’smart grid’, backed by David Cameron’s Conservatives, which would use the data to manage national demand more efficiently and advise households when it is cheapest to switch on appliances.

via Smart energy meters in homes could be hacked – Telegraph.

Amid fears of cyberwarfare and hacker attack, the government is moving forward on improving the U.S. power grid. “At stake is America’s energy future and the economic competitiveness of our nation,” declared U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. Locke made the remarks during his presentation of the first set of proposed standards for coordinating the deployment of a nationwide smart grid that would underpin the country’s power infrastructure.

With such a plan comes the ever-present threat of terrorists or hackers taking advantage of such a sophisticated network. Without the proper safeguards, power plants could be shut down by criminals breaking into the smart grid’s communications network from the other side of the world. Consumers could also find hackers tapping into their smart meters. So ultimately, ensuring that every point of the grid is secure is essential. “Having 48 of 50 states implement security specifications will not suffice,” underscored Locke.

via Will the ‘Smart Grid’ Be Safe Enough? – Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News – FOXNews.com.

The Smart Grid allows two-way communication between you and the power grid.

You can feed power back to the Grid, the Grid can tell you how much power you’re using throughout the day, and — if you want — it can control your appliances for you.

And that’s just way too tempting for hackers, thieves and other criminals.

Annabelle Lee doesn’t sleep much.

Lee is the Senior Cybersecurity Strategist in the Computer Security Division Information Technology Laboratory at NIST.

It is her mission to make sure the Smart Grid is secure.

She runs a task group of upwards of 200 people — all volunteers — from the public sector, academia, and private industry. She says there’s a lot to do, but they’re more ahead of the curve than you might think.

via Federal News Radio 1500 AM: Scientists Take an All-Hazards Approach to Smart Grid Security.

As with all wirelessly-connected electronic devices, smart meters–and in turn, the smart grid–are vulnerable to hackers. And if the smart grid is hacked, well, there goes the neighborhood’s (or the city’s) power. CNN recently demonstrated how a hacker equipped with $500 worth of equipment could take control of the grid, and now Mike Davis, a security consultant at IOActive, has presented a laundry list of ways that hackers could disrupt the smart grid.

Davis claims that enterprising hackers could put a needle on each side of a smart meter’s memory chip to intercept and analyze electrical signals, which in turn provides information on the meter’s programming. Similarly, codes from a smart meters two-way radio chip can be intercepted and extracted with the syringe method. Once a hacker has access to these codes, she can log on to the smart grid network and issue commands. Hackers could also attack smart meter hardware by reverse-engineering it or they could use a software radio to listen to wireless communications and figure out how to interact with them.

via Security Expert Proves Hacking the Smart Grid Is a Snap | Sustainability | Fast Company.

The illegal access of 179,000 Toronto Hydro e-billing accounts last week may be written off by some as just another privacy breach in an increasingly interconnected world, but it also raises a red flag in the rush toward the “smart grid.”

Customer information taken in this case included names, addresses, customer account numbers and some billing information, all building blocks for anyone serious about committing identity theft. “Nobody knows if it was a rogue employee or somebody else. It’s a big question mark,” says Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner, in an interview.

To its credit, Toronto Hydro was quick to act. But Cavoukian, who is investigating the breach, sees it as a wake-up call of sorts as utilities begin to modernize their networks and embrace communications technologies to better interact with customers.

She mentions Google and its plan to work with certain utilities – Toronto Hydro included – to demonstrate its new residential energy management tool, Google PowerMeter. Are the proper policies in place, for example, to make sure your personal information as a customer is protected when it’s handed over to Google?

“There needs to be a wall between Toronto Hydro customer information and Google being able to take that and connect it with other information Google possesses that may be linked through your Gmail account,” she says. (Disclosure: I co-authored a book on data privacy with Cavoukian in 2002)

Her concern could just as easily extend to Microsoft and its new energy management tool, Hohm. Or the dozens of similar, much more advanced applications that will use two-way broadband and wireless networks to gather customer data, including energy use, for highly detailed analysis and feedback.

“The smart grid is a good idea, and I’m certainly in favour of it. But the focus is so much on controlling energy use that I think the privacy issue is a sleeper; it’s not top-of-mind,” Cavoukian says.

That was the same message heard Friday at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. That’s where Mike Davis, a security consultant with IOActive Inc. in Seattle, showed how someone could hack into a smart meter and install a computer worm that could spread to other smart meters used by homes and businesses connected to a local distribution hub.

via TheStar.com | Business | Smart grid saves power, but can it thwart hackers?.