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When it comes to how we live our lives in the Twenty-first Century, nothing may have an impact on our lives daily like the ability to have access to electricity to run our homes, and our businesses. This ability to have access to reliable and consistent power is especially true to those of us who depend on it for powering machinery to help us live more productive lives. If we lost this ability, there would be numerous deaths due to some interruption of these services. Technical Upgrades With recent technical developments in the management of this vital resource. Software applications and hardware has been developed in order to provide better management of these services to the end consumer. Whether it is the integration of renewable energy into the grid, or rerouting resources during an outage. While technology continues to help improve our lives, it comes with some inherent risks as well. Hardware Vulnerabilities Recently, there has been a movement to convert old monitoring devices with “Smart Meters” in order to better manage the power supply to a residence or a business. Whether it is the amount of power that is used, or if there is some interruption in that service. These smart meters can provide the energy company with real time information about their distribution network. This means that these devices are not just connected to a business or a residence, but also to a computer network. It’s this network that collects the data and provides connectivity to the service provider. It is also where security vulnerabilities lie as well. The meters have firmware that is installed by the manufacturer which interfaces with the service provider’s network. This software provides for the functionality of the device and enables software to interface with it for the end consumer to manage their usage over time. Grid Threats It is with this growing connection to the Internet that the energy grid is potentially more vulnerable to potential hackers. Whether it is disrupting service, or causing some mass outage, attackers can impact consumers in a way like never before. Additionally, the data that is collected by those smart meters allows hackers to infer certain things about the connected household, like:
Lives Impacted
The importance of having a continuous supply of energy is essential to life in the Twenty-first Century, and more and more people are dependent on its continued delivery. Whether it is to supply electricity to the oxygen purification machine, or the monitoring of a patients heartbeat. All of these can be seriously impacted if the grid is compromised or shut down, even for a short amount of time. Securing the Data One of the things that electricity providers can do is to secure the data that they collect from the smart meters. As these meters can provide deep insight into the delivery of resources to the end consumer, they can also collect data that may not have been intended. Here are some ideas about how to secure this data:
Promise of the Future While there are some very serious concerns that should be addressed by those that collect user data from smart electrical meters. There is the promise that the analysis of this data will help to provide insight into how energy is being used and when the need for more resources should come online. Additionally, rerouting of the grid to provide services during an outage may be one of the biggest benefits that this technology provides. Also, the ability to integrate green-energy initiatives into the grid will help to provide redundancies where there were none before. Summary The use of smart-technology is an ever growing field within the electrical delivery industry. Whether it is used to monitor usage or how the electricity is delivered, the smart meters are collecting data that can be used maliciously if it is compromised. It is up to the electricity service provider to protect this data and help to ensure that the customer’s unique usage data is not compromised. By taking some of the steps mentioned above, a service provider will be able to take the needed steps to help to ensure that their consumer’s data will not be compromised. Update 7/13/2020 Read the recent update to this article published by Nexant |
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