AP Exclusive: 'Smart' meters have security holes

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Computer-security researchers say new "smart" meters that are designed to help deliver electricity more efficiently also have flaws that could let hackers tamper with the power grid in previously impossible ways.

At the very least, the vulnerabilities open the door for attackers to jack up strangers' power bills. These flaws also could get hackers a key step closer to exploiting one of the most dangerous capabilities of the new technology, which is the ability to remotely turn someone else's power on and off.

The attacks could be pulled off by stealing meters — which can be situated outside of a home — and reprogramming them. Or an attacker could sit near a home or business and wirelessly hack the meter from a laptop, according to Joshua Wright, a senior security analyst with InGuardians Inc. The firm was hired by three utilities to study their smart meters' resistance to attack.

... Power companies are aggressively rolling out the new meters. In the U.S. alone, more than 8 million smart meters have been deployed by electric utilities and nearly 60 million should be in place by 2020, according to a list of publicly announced projects kept by The Edison Foundation, an organization focused on the electric industry.

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[JDPriestly]

1. Why would anyone want to spend so much time running up someone else's electric

bill? I guess I just don't have a criminal mind. Who would want to do such a stupid thing? The amount of time you would have to spend to do this just would not justify the small amount of damage you could do to someone. After all, if an electric bill went up ridiculously much, the electric company would have to check the meter and probably would discover a problem. And the person going to all the trouble to break into the system would get nothing out of it. Makes no sense to me. Why would anyone want to do this?

[Jennicut]

2. My husband works for a local utility in CT. Tampering with meters in nothing new.

But the companies making these meters should have tested to see what hackers could do. You would not believe the amount of money the power companies lose from people messing around with their own meters. My husband was told to always look out for meters that looked strange when he was out reading the meters. I don't know why someone would want to hack into the use of someone else's meter but it could be a real serious issue.