smart meters

[dninja at gmail.com (Robin Wood)]

2009/5/12 Vincent Lape <vlape at me.com>:
> funny thing is that the meter will shut services if tampered. DOS
> anyone?

I thought it was illegal/generally not done to turn off someones
services without a lot of effort to resolve an issue first. A supplier
could get in all sorts of trouble for shutting down someones
electricity and turning off some vital, life saving, device.

When the first granny dies of cold in the winter because her gas and
electricity were accidentally turned off remotely the stuff will
really hit the fan.

Robin

> 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
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Pauldotcom mailing list
> > > > Pauldotcom at mail.pauldotcom.com
> > > > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom
> > > > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Pauldotcom mailing list
> > > Pauldotcom at mail.pauldotcom.com
> > > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom
> > > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com
> > _______________________________________________
> > Pauldotcom mailing list
> > Pauldotcom at mail.pauldotcom.com
> > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom
> > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Pauldotcom mailing list
> Pauldotcom at mail.pauldotcom.com
> http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom
> Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com