IBM & SDG&E Smart Meter security

[SJS]

begin  quoting Andrew Lentvorski as of Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 12:56:46AM -0700:
> Randall Shimizu wrote:
>
>> The big concern is the grid not so much the meters. One big risk would
>> be to direct a power surge a particular business possibly. A super
>> spike that would burn out everything connected to it.
>
> Um, electricity isn't like TCP traffic.  You can't force electrons down  
> a pipe if someone doesn't want them.

There goes another movie-plot threat.

> Even if you hack the smart meter, you can't increase the voltage on my  
> line.  Nor can you imbalance the phases of a 3 phase line.
>
> The only things *you* can do to *me* by hacking a smart meter is cause  
> me to have a bigger electricity bill or possibly cut off my electricity.

With a network-accessible smart meters, it becomes far more prudent to set
up a household battery/UPS system. Not only does that mitigate the problem
of someone playing silly buggers with your meter, it also makes it easier
to integrate solar and wind power as well.

-- 
Put your 'smart' meter upstream of the not-remotely-hackable one, please.
Stewart Stremler