Yeah, it shouldn’t be news.. but I guess I am sort of glad it is making some sort of headline. I have written in the past how I think the concept of a smart grid is terrible due to security concerns. I just have no confidence in today’s security technology to properly secure such a system. If we can’t properly secure our bank transactions(my main credit card was compromised for at least the 2nd or 3rd time this year and I am careful), how can anyone expect to secure the grid?
Just saw a new post on Slashdot which points to a new report being released that covers some of how vulnerable we are to attack on our grid.
The report, released ahead of a House hearing on cybersecurity by Congressmen Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), finds that cyberattacks are a daily occurrence, with one power company claiming it fights off 10,000 attempted intrusions each month.
[..]
Such attacks could cut power to large sections of the country and take months to repair.
Oh how I miss the days of early cyber security where the threat was little more than kids poking around and learning. These days there is really little defense against the organized military of the likes of China, sigh.
If they want to get you, most likely they are going to get you.
I’ve had a discussion or two with a friend who works with industrial control systems and the security on those is generally worse than I had heard about with the various breaches around the world.
I don’t see any real value the so called smart grid has, anything remotely resembling gains that would offset the massive growth of the network access points that are connected to the grid.
It’s probably already too late. All security is some form of obscurity at the end of the day whether it is a password, or encryption or physical isolation. Obscuring the grid by reducing the network connections to it has got to provide some level of benefit…