Security Costs of Smart Meters Tallied After Roll-Out


Ensuring the security of wireless smart meter networks could cost up to $1.6 billion by 2015, says a new report by Pike Research, emphasizing that the meters “have often been rolled out to customers with little forethought about the potential security risks.”

Quoting senior analyst Bob Lockhart, the webpage summary continues: “…smart meters represent a worst-case scenario in terms of security: the devices lack sufficient power to execute strong security software; they are placed in physically non-secure locations; and they are installed in volumes large enough that one or two may not be missed. Therefore, the only valid cyber security approach for smart metering is to assume from the outset that some devices will be successfully attacked and create sufficient resiliency to allow the remainder of the network to survive.”

One major security concern with wireless meters has to do with consumer privacy; another concern is the security of the electric grid.