http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227701134 By Mathew J. Schwartz InformationWeek October 12, 2010 Is your home electricity meter the next device you have to worry about getting hacked? Researchers at last week's IEEE SmartGridComm2010 conference in Gaithersburg, Md., warned that as utilities transition to greater use of smart grids, their increased two-way communication would leave consumers and suppliers open to more forms of cyber attack. In fact, by 2015, they estimated, the smart grid will offer up to 440 million potential points to be hacked. Why mess with someone's home heating bill? One significant worry is that intercepting and manipulating smart grid data could provide attackers with the means to benefit financially, said Le Xie, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Texas A&M University, according to published reports. For example, utilities typically plan their energy requirements one day in advance. An attacker who manipulated apparent energy demands, forcing utilities to turn to emergency -- and more expensive -- energy resources could likewise place safe bets in the energy market. "The virtual trader basically gambles against the price difference between the day-ahead market and the real-time market," said Xie. Beyond financial remuneration, other leading attack scenarios include causing chaos, studying consumers' usage patterns to determine when they're on vacation and then burgling their house, or taking out sensitive facilities. [...] ___________________________________________________________ Tegatai Managed Colocation: Four Provider Blended Tier-1 Bandwidth, Fortinet Universal Threat Management, Natural Disaster Avoidance, Always-On Power Delivery Network, Cisco Switches, SAS 70 Type II Datacenter. Find peace of mind, Defend your Critical Infrastructure. http://www.tegataiphoenix.com/Received on Tue Oct 12 2010 - 23:36:13 PDT
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