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IOActive to Address Smart Grid Security

By Jai C.S. July 29, 2009
IOActive, a provider of comprehensive security services, has revealed that its Senior Security Consultant, Mike Davis, will deliver a briefing on Smart Grid Device Security at the Black Hat USA event.
 
The Black Hat Briefings is described as a security conference series for the information security community. This year, the briefings will be held on July 30 in Las Vegas.
 
In his talk, Davis will be highlighting on how quickly the malicious code can propagate throughout a neighborhood, ultimately causing power disconnections and calibration modifications rendering the meters inoperable. Davis will also discuss his optimism for the future of the Smart Grid and suggestions for developing more secure meters.
 
Smart Grid is the higher version of Power grid and it delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology. This kind of real time distribution of power contributes to the saving of energy, cost reduction and increase in reliability and transparency, officials say.
 
While the benefits of the Smart Grid are undisputed, it is critical to consider the security of the infrastructure as well, said the company.
 
In their research efforts to identify potential risks and threat vectors, Davis and a team of IOActive researchers have reportedly developed proof-of-concept malicious code that self-propagated in a peer-to-peer fashion from one meter to the next.
 
“Many of the security vulnerabilities we found are pretty frightening and most smart meters don’t even use encryption or ask for authentication before carrying out sensitive functions like running software updates and severing customers from the power grid,” said Davis.
 
Davis also mentioned that by informing people that these serious vulnerabilities exist, it will prompt vendors to mitigate existing vulnerabilities and increase security in future products.
 
As informed, Davis’ presentation is scheduled for Thursday, July 30 from 4:45-6:00pm in the Milano Ballroom.
 

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Jai C.S. is a contributing editor for IoTevolutionworld. To read more of Jai's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Michael Dinan
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