IBM UK on Smart Grid Pluses and Challenges

With thanks to the Security and Business Intelligence Blog :

Smart Grid Knowledge Boost: New EPRI Conference Announced

Come to New York City in late June for EPRI's EPRI Power Quality Applications (PQA) and Advanced Distribution Automation (ADA) 2009 Joint Conference and Exhibition. Lots of focus on new applications and some on smart grid security as well. You'll find a nice overview here and EPRI's own listing here.

Facilities Managers Joining Smart Grid Bandwagon

... and noting security/reliability benefits:

Enhanced security is another benefit. By implementing a grid that can sense what is happening within it, system operators will know when someone is trying to tamper with it. The electrical grid is a critical infrastructure, and an attack on it could be devastating. Recent reports state that spies have been mapping the U.S. utility infrastructure and hacking into its computers, planting software that could be used to disrupt it.

Another recent incident that points to the vulnerability of critical infrastructures is the cutting of lines in California that disabled phones and the Internet. It is impossible to police millions of miles of electrical cables, so intelligent systems will be vital in monitoring and securing this critical infrastructure.

Full article here.

Smart Grid Communications: It's about More than Wires ...

... it's about wireless, including how today there's not nearly enough wireless coverage to go around:

Coverage is indeed one of the challenges as some utilities have up to 50% of their service area not covered by their existing networks. Utilities often operate in a mix of dense urban to extreme rural areas and need to flexibility of operating in both.

2-way comms and robust security will likely require far more bandwidth than this offering can provide, but it's a start towards a solution we didn't even know we needed a few years ago. See more: here.

DOE and Providers Talk Smart Grid Stimulus Tactics

You can't say interesting things aren't going on in smartgridland. More and larger pilot deployments are happening, standards are evolving, industry groups are jockeying for position. And there's little doubt security considerations will get lost in the shuffle. This Ars Technica article does a nice job of laying out the competing interests and players in the smart grid stimulus scrum.

Smart Grid Security in DC Update

This week's been a busy one for those of us at the SGS Blog and it's not over yet:

1. Covered the CNA "Powering America's Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security " report release event at the Newseum Monday morning - it was great and the "smart grid as energy security" theme was prominent
   
2. Attended the FERC/NIST/EPRI interim standards development workshop in National Harbor, MD today.  Extremely well organized by EPRI's Erfan Ibrahim - it could have been herding cats, but instead it was a case study in how to get the most value out of 600 or so diverse but very talented participants
3. Tomorrow my colleague Jack and I are off to brief Senate staffers on the current state of smart grid security, as well as hear them out on what they need next

Will keep you posted on the fruits of all of the above.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Insider Threat Lesson for Smart Grid from Water

Too generous with privilege levels? Social engineering? $9 million of the California Water Service's money and and their auditor recently fled the US.

Hat tip to Annabelle Lee of NIST, who mailed this to the smart grid cyber security working group. Read all about it here .