With
every new technology comes some risk. Even when we talk
about smart electricity meters. That's according to Justin
Searle, managing partner at UtiliSec, one of only three
consultancies in the US that specializes in security
services for the energy utility sectors.
It's an
opinion that's becoming more relevant as India moves
relentlessly, like much of the world, towards employing
smart electricity meters. "India needs to make sure
these systems don't come crashing down, affecting hundreds
of millions citizens dependent ontoday's modern
conveniences," says Searle.
The
trend of using smart meters is part of a largermove to
create smarter electricity grids. Smart meters help
electricityutilities do away with manual data collection and
power theft, a major problem in the sector. India has among
the highest transmission and distribution (T&D) losses
anywhere in the world--a problem that smart meters can fix.
Just
two days ago the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM)
launched smart meters to track power consumption in thecity,
which faces T&D losses of 15 percent. BESCOM is expected to
deploy one million smart meters in the following year.
But
there's a security risk attached to smart meters. In the US,
for example, which has used smart meters for a decade,
Searle says that "hackers have recovered passwords stored in
theoptical interface and used them to attack other smart
meters causing massive blackouts. And of the very few
attacks in the US that have been made public, we know that
user data has been stolen off the hardware," says Searle.
The
biggest risk the meters carry is the power disconnect
button. "An attacker can shut down power remotely at
different homes," says Searle. With some of these
deployments, an attacker can potentially track the network
connection back to the electricity supply company. "Any
vulnerability in the communication channel can allow access
to a utility datacenters' servers. That's control on much
more critical infrastructure."
Attackers can also figure out a users' power usage."Hackers
could intercept the data during transmission from the home
to the energy company and gain details on a resident'
lifestyle," says Searle. "Criminals could use it to time a
burglary and even figure out which appliances they'd like to
steal."
What's
worse is that attacks on smart meter are difficult to
detect, since they don't have logging or sensor
capabilities. "One of the best measures is to disable any
functionalities that the meters have but are not in use.
Functionalitiesare the biggest vulnerability," says Searle.
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