|
Videos
October 30, 2012 By News Staff
As technology becomes more prevalent and easier to use, the risk of a security breach also seems to become more likely -- and the use of wireless home utility meters are no exception. As of 2010, more than one-third of all homes in the U.S. use automatic meter reading (AMR). The technology is useful because it makes data collection easier, but according to researchers at the University of Southern California (USC), the unencrypted signal may also be easier for an eavesdropper to read.
"There's been a lot of discussion about smart meters and whether they're secure or not," Lead Researcher Wenyuan Xu told Phys.org. "But smart meters are not yet widespread. So we wanted to look at the wireless readers common now. Are they secure? Will they leak private information?"
Like many technologies, wireless readers also reduce the demand for human workers. A single worker can drive a truck down a street and collect information on hundreds of houses, rather than have many workers manually gather data from each meter. Unfortunately, there is easier access for people who are not supposed to have access to such data.
Xu's team was able to reverse-engineer the transmission technology used by the meters to obtain access to meter usage data. Once the team understood how the technology worked, they attached an antenna and an amplifier to a laptop and visited an apartment complex to do some snooping.
"We were able to detect even further than we expected," Xu said. "The complex had 408 units, but we were able to see 485, so we were seeing beyond the complex itself." Additionally, the data could be matched to individual apartments because the packet data contained identification numbers that matched numbers stamped on the physical meters found on the apartments.
While Xu's team said they believed the packet data transmitted should be encrypted, they admitted that such snooping is not easily done. However, in the wrong hands, the data could be misused by “bad guys,” Xu said.
Read the full story about unencrypted utility meter signals on Phys.org.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com
You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.govtech.com/Study-Unencrypte-Smart-Meter-Signal-Easy-to-Read.html
Collaborative Justice: Transforming Criminal Justice Services Through Unified Collaboration
Cloud-Based Services Accelerate Public Sector Adoption of Video Collaboration
Fairly easy obvious use of data: Drive down a road daily, reading and logging all of it: 1) Look for houses with large power usage, likely to have lots of fancy expensive gadgets, TVs and whatnot (or maybe growing weed?) 2) Look for the houses with unusually low power usage compared to normal and you've probably got someone on vacation.
For anyone who does not know there is a term for this type of activity - "wardriving". Google it or look on wikipedia.com for more info. Also you may be able to request that your utility not install a wireless smartmeter at your home, one of my family members did but it costs him an extra $10 per month.
NOT ONLY ARE THESE METERS DANGEROUS WITH PULSED RADIATION EMISSIONS, NOW OUR PERSONAL, PRIVATE INFORMATION IS AT RISK. CORRUPTION!!! I DO NOT OWN A CELL PHONE FOR THIS EXACT REASON!
Being charged for NOT receiving an IARC/WHO Class 2B carcinogen emitting device on the side of your house is EXTORTION plain and simple and should be the target of a cease and desist order if brought to court. This is disgusting criminal behaviour on the part of utility companies.
Home Security Information - info to help you make your home safer and explain various types of burglar alarms and systems.http://www.homealarmssecuritysystem.com/safety-facts.html.