smart meters

[dninja at gmail.com (Robin Wood)]

On the radio this morning someone said that theirs had a SIM card in
and it reported their reading back to base every night. That is
probably the safest option and removes the need for a van to comb the
streets reading each unit.

I'm sure people will try getting that card out and making free calls
from it though. I'm also thinking bad thoughts about sniffing, MITM,
fake SMS/GPRS connections. Lucky I haven't got time to do the project
I've already got on let alone new ones!

Robin

2009/5/12 Scott Webster <websterstech at gmail.com>:
> The city I live in is using this companies products to meter water usage.
>
> http://www.itron.com/pages/products_detail.asp?id=itr_000428.xml
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pauldotcom-bounces at mail.pauldotcom.com
> [mailto:pauldotcom-bounces at mail.pauldotcom.com] On Behalf Of Robin Wood
> Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 2:43 PM
> To: PaulDotCom Mailing List
> Subject: [Pauldotcom] smart meters
>
> 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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