[LINK] smart metering

[Crispin Harris]

Ohhh, the Potential Joys that are Smart Meters.
Ahhh, the World of FAIL that is the in-world deployment of these things!

On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 2:57 PM, <stephen at melbpc.org.au> wrote:

> Hmm .. seems to me that if every home, workplace and powered structure
> will soon have an always-on smart meter point for home/work/car energy
> metering..


<groans> Oh Ghod, I hope not.  There is some good academic literature about
the dangers of so-called smart-meters, and the (incredibly) insecure
wireless protocol that is being used for remote management and update for
these devices.

Prof Caig Valli (
http://www.scss.ecu.edu.au/staff/staffinfo.php?staffid=craigv) { Head of
School, School of Computer and Security Science, Edith Cowan University
c.valli at ecu dot edu dot au }, presented some interesting findings on
Smart metering at the recent Australian Security and Inteligence Conference
(http://ocs.scss.ecu.edu.au/index.php/asic/ASIC09).

His findings are summarised thusly:
 1) the wireless communications protocol most often used is riddled with
holes,
 2) low cost commodity equipment can compromise the wireless networks
 3) the devices do not do even the most minimal validity checks on firmware
updates (not even a simple CRC check)
 4) Malware propogation through the network is exponential. Further,
simulations of metropolitan deployment showed that the network was
unrecoverable within a very short time (15-30 minutes IIRC) after initial
infection.

The conference proceedings are not published yet, so I can't post a link
(sigh).


> then, utility companies may be smart to allow it to be used for many
> things.


Yes, this is the potential Joy - Smart Meters (with included wireless mesh
network) could enable many low-bandwidth, non-time-critical applications
that could provide wide-spread disemination of information.

(Fire/emergency warnings, for instance).



> Eg if those smart meters everywhere could also top-up
> Myki cards, debit cards, phones etc, and so simply present one bill it
> should be very useful, very popular, and, subsidize installation costs
> enormously? An always-on interactive wall unit in all structures could
> have many, many additional uses? Haha .. maybe even voting?
>

A government owned/controlled input terminal in every house? Turn Democracy
into a real actual thing?

Low cost plebiscites?

What a wonderful dream.

>
> $200B expected for smart-grid technology
>

Seems a touch conservative to me.
At aproximately $450USD per smart-meter (asuming mass deployment brings down
the costs - they are over $700 AUD today), installation costs of about
$200USD each, then networking, metering & billing software updates, staff
training, the inevitable deployment hickups, and then the network/grid
management/control, wireless network deployments (here in WA, deployment of
the wireless control-grid was going to DOUBLE the cost of the meters).

$200B US would cover ... probably 100M homes... maybe.

As my quick google-search suggested 90-125Million houses in the US, maybe it
is doable.

Hope it doesn't follow currently deployment models, though.

Cheers,
  C
-- 
Crispin Harris
crispin.harris at gmail.com
"A great deal of Security is unfortunately just like the underwear of
Brittany Spears.
If it's even there at all, it is needlessly complex and frilly; looks good
without actually covering much; and is far to easy to get around or remove
completely."
- David Boston

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