smart meters

[vlape at me.com (Vincent Lape)]

funny thing is that the meter will shut services if tampered. DOS  
anyone?
On May 11, 2009, at 6:55 PM, Robin Wood wrote:

> 2009/5/11 Vincent Lape <vlape at me.com>:
> > the meters in western PA use an inductive probe mounted on the  
> > outside
> > of the home. the utility worker has to make contact with the probe
> > which gives the relative position of the meter gauges.
> >
> > The power company has been testing some electric meters that transmit
> > the data back via the power grid.
> >
> > I decided to research the meter shown on the video and its kinda  
> > cool.
> > they can shut service remotely, you can pay from its keypad, seems to
> > have all kinds of tamper protection. im trying to get ahold of a tech
> > manual
>
> I can see a whole load of hackers getting into trouble with these
> meters. Traditional hackers just out of curiosity and nasty hackers
> from trying to defraud the system.
>
> I guess the cash saved by removing call centres and guys in vans will
> probably make up for the loss of revenue for the few people who do
> manage to hack the system.
>
> Let us know what you find out.
>
> Robin
>
> > On May 11, 2009, at 5:42 PM, Robin Wood wrote:
> >
> > > Hi
> > > Some utility providers are looking at rolling out smart meters for  
> > > gas
> > > and electricity which they can read remotely. Does anyone know how
> > > that works? What are they using to connect to the device to send out
> > > the data? If it is over your broadband then it won't be long till
> > > someone sniffs the packets and sends fake readings back, if it is
> > > wireless and they have a guy drive past then there are similar
> > > sniffing problems, you also have to worry about interference. They
> > > could have a GSM card in, in which case, how long till someone  
> > > cracks
> > > one open and tries to use the card in a phone, I imagine it would be
> > > locked to a single number but people would try.
> > >
> > > I can't think of a secure and problem free way to do this. Any  
> > > ideas?
> > >
> > > Here is a BBC video about the meters.
> > >
> > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8040232.stm
> > >
> > > Robin
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