By now you should have your PG&E SmartMeter installed, or no later than the end of September. Several people have asked me how secure are these SmartMeters when connected to PG&E’s smart-grid? Right now the SmartMeters are quite secure, as they are not connected to any network. The PG&E mesh network will not be installed locally for another six to eight months, according to the Tech that installed our SmartMeter.
The answer to the security question depends on whom you ask. Silver Spring, the contractor installing the mesh network, has a white paper that discusses the network security. This paper declares the network is secure.
From the start, Silver Spring recognized that the smart grid might be the target of malicious activity, and understood the vulnerabilities presented by interconnecting devices. Consequently, the company has taken an architectural approach to security and embedded it throughout the hardware devices, the software operations, and the network-level transactions running across the smart grid infrastructure.
Yet, they understand that the system is not as secure as it might be and improvements will be required in the future.
Full column is at the CABPRO Report.
