Smart Meters - Alleged Hacking Threat

inspectorperez

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11321855/Chinese-smart-meters-threat-power-supplies-Britain-critics-fear.html.

Would be interested to hear observations from industry experts on this forum.

Is this Daily Mail scaremongering or do the experts quoted in the article have a point?

This type of article in the media is going to underline the views of most smart meter sceptics I would have thought.

Astria

I'd say it was theoretically possible as all smart meters have the capability of turning off your supply, but don't think it would ever happen - exactly how would they do it? I wouldn't expect them to have access to the actual smart meter network which would mean they'd need to be in close proximity to the meter which means it's a scare story. Even if a smart meter is a trojan horse and gets installed, it doesn't have any access to other smart meters in the area.

However, considering the number of people who think Smart Meters connect to your WiFi, this is probably why people think it's possible - "they are attacking your smart meter through the internet!"

Considering the Daily Mail's reputation as well, they are known to generate lots of scare stories in an attempt to obtain clicks for advertising revenue, which is far more likely. I never believe anything they come out with.

DullGreyGuy

Its the Daily Hate, of cause its scaremongering. 

Their stated concern is that the meters could be remotely hacked and used to turn off the property's supply... 138,000 meter to date -v- 51,000,000 domestic electricity and gas supplies (probably should add non-domestic too) and somehow this would "destroy the national grid".

It'd be highly unpleasant for those impacted by the hack, if its possible, but the other 50,862,000 supplies would continue as normal. As usual for sensationalist reporting, they offer up no evidence that the hack is possible just a tin foil hat assumption that it must be and more likely a backdoor has intentionally been built into it to allow it that no buyer has managed to find.

facade

It is trivially easy to insert rogue code into the bootloader, so it survives firmware updates, or even to replace the microcontroller with a custom one at time of manufacture. (just insert a load of fake ICs into the supply chain- they could do that with meters manufactured here anyway as no doubt the components are sourced from the cheapest supplier.

All they need do is turn them all off and on at preset times.

The question is have they done it? It could be without the knowledge of the manufacturer.

P1Fanatic

Astria said:

I'd say it was theoretically possible as all smart meters have the capability of turning off your supply, but don't think it would ever happen - exactly how would they do it? I wouldn't expect them to have access to the actual smart meter network which would mean they'd need to be in close proximity to the meter which means it's a scare story. Even if a smart meter is a trojan horse and gets installed, it doesn't have any access to other smart meters in the area.

However, considering the number of people who think Smart Meters connect to your WiFi, this is probably why people think it's possible - "they are attacking your smart meter through the internet!"

Considering the Daily Mail's reputation as well, they are known to generate lots of scare stories in an attempt to obtain clicks for advertising revenue, which is far more likely. I never believe anything they come out with.

Do they not use 3G/4G connectivity to connect back to the Energy Suppliers network? If the Energy Supplier has remote access then clearly its also possible for anyone with the ability to get into their network. And suppliers often allow vendors access to their internal networks for troubleshooting, upgrades etc.

If think it's pretty safe to assume it could be done but question is why China or anyone else would want to. Normally hackers take action for financial reward or political statement. 

I'm also not sure how the article is proposing that have remote access to Smart meters and therefore the ability to shut off power is destroying the national grid? Unless they are inferring that turning off a million residential supplies off and back on again at the same time would overload the NG.

Astria

DullGreyGuy said:

It'd be highly unpleasant for those impacted by the hack, if its possible, but the other 50,862,000 supplies would continue as normal. As usual for sensationalist reporting, they offer up no evidence that the hack is possible just a tin foil hat assumption that it must be and more likely a backdoor has intentionally been built into it to allow it that no buyer has managed to find.

Wouldn't it be easier to instead hack the DCC network, obtain control over all the smart meters regardless of manufacturer, and then threaten to turn them all off? But even if that happened, it would be an inconvenience rather than "destroy the national grid", but it is more possible that what the daily fail are reporting.

inspectorperez

As a non expert myself, I find it strange that the DM states that US has banned the use of Chinese smart meters without quoting the source or US law.

I cannot find any form of reference whatsoever that supports this particular statement.

brewerdave

Good story to discuss with the EDF smart meter team when they try to persuade me to have a smart gas meter !!!

[Deleted User]

This is a very old story. No one can ever say that ‘it will never happen’; however, GCHQ believes that the risk is small. 

http://www.nickhunn.com/gb-smart-metering/

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/the-smart-security-behind-the-gb-smart-metering-system

MWT

P1Fanatic said:

Do they not use 3G/4G connectivity to connect back to the Energy Suppliers network?

No, they don't.

None of the suppliers have direct access to the meters, nor do we as customers have access either, it is only the DCC that can send/receive messages to/from the meters and pass on the results to the suppliers and authorized 3rd parties.