The survey conducted by nCircle, revealed 104 energy security professionals were dissatisfied with the security of current smart meters. The survey was sponsored by nCircle and EnergySec, a DOE-funded public-private partnership that works to enhance the cyber security of the electric infrastructure. The online survey was conducted between March 12 and March 31, 2012.
When asked, “Do smart meter installations have sufficient security controls to protect against false data injection?” 61% said “no”.
Power grids connect electricity producers to consumers through interconnected transmission and distribution networks. In these networks, system monitoring is necessary to ensure reliable power grid operation. The analysis of smart meter measurements and power system models that estimate the state of the power grid are a routine part of system monitoring. False data injection attacks exploit the conﬁguration of power grids by introducing arbitrary errors into state variables while bypassing existing techniques for bad measurement detection.