Smart Grid Learning Institute Posts Dr. Massoud Amin's 23 June 09 Presentation

Here's a link to the Smart Grid Learning Institute, an org with which I was unaware until they hosted a great webinar from Smart Grid guru Massoud Amin.  You'll see a link to Massoud's 80 slide powerpoint front and center. Security is touched upon lightly, and you might have to speak with Dr. Amin in person if you want to get a better feel for his Smart Grid security knowledge learned at EPRI and elsewhere ... which is extensive.

Itron Pays for its own Smart Grid Security Tests

Here's smart meter maker Itron blazing a new trail others will soon be following, and perhaps in so doing, making a good name for itself as a proactive and responsible vendor:

Itron is paying for the security evaluation, but company officials have not said how much the tests will cost. "Our hope is we eventually will take the knowledge we gain by working with Itron and transition it out to third-party cyber-security firms," said Ethan Huffman, a spokesman at INL, which contracts with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Headline of the Future: ALERT! METERS IN FRESNO ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE PIRATE BAY

Got your attention? Good. It's worth your while to read the rest of Katie Fehrenbacher's great current snapshot and short history of smart grid security. You'll find it here.

Simple Security Questions

IT (and now Smart Grid) security can be a mind numbingly complex matter. But as with many undertakings, asking the right questions up front, prior to leaping for answers immediately, can be the key to success. Here are three to start with that form the basis of a recent article by Jack:

1. Why are you doing this?
2. What are you trying to secure?
3. What will happen if you don't do this right?

Pretty simple, right? Notice: there's Nothing about firewalls, intrusion detection or advanced encryption algorithms? It gets there of course, but it shouldn't start there. Here's the article.

100 Million Smart Meters

That's research group ON World's prediction for what will be deployed in the next few years. All I can say is if ON is right, it looks like we're moving pretty fast. I hope they come with hardware and software flexible enough to be updated when it turns out they conform to the wrong standards post installation. Can you imagine the price (monetary and PR) to replace them shortly after funding a roll-out of this magnitude?

Perceptions of Insecurity a Drag on Smart Grid Deployment

Whether it's secure or not, if the public (and Congress) fear it enough, development and deployment of the Smart Grid, coming on so fast today, will slow to a crawl. In a nice summary of this phenomenon, Rob Wilhite, a 24 year utility industry vet, recently noted:

As a result of [multiple cyber security] incidents and media attention, some groups are calling for reductions in the pace of smart grid advancement to protect the reliability of the nation's bulk power system. Some industry organizations are even suggesting that the Department of Energy not award any of the US $4.5 billion in stimulus funding until we develop acceptable standards.

Part of the reason NIST, EPRI and other pro's are working so hard on cyber standards has to due with ensuring greater security of this most complex of all systems. But behind that surface impulse lies the knowledge that this is also about the birth of the Smart Grid itself. It's part of the Smart Grid's early PR campaign, in which confidence in the security of the Smart Grid will foster a faster, broader, and much needed roll-out. Too much fear, uncertainty and doubt, however, and this baby may not make it out of the crib.

All Want to be the Cisco of the Smart Grid

By which they mean the dominant provider of essential, ubiquitous and lucrative hardware and software to build out the massive beast called the Smart Grid, the power distribution network analog of the ever expanding Internet. Here's how Investor's Business Daily describes the tussle to become the Smart Grid's 800 pound gorilla:

Leading the way among startups is Silver Spring. It's raised close to $200 million from venture capitalists and other investors and been dubbed by some in the green movement "the Cisco of smart grid." The catch: Cisco also aims to be the Cisco of smart grid. Networking gear leader Cisco Systems has proclaimed smart grid as its next billion-dollar business. But also looking to be the Cisco of smart grids are IBM,General Electric, AT&T and Silver Spring investor Google, among others.

Sounds like it could become the mother of all VHS vs. Betamax wars. Hope the winning vendors and formats  arrive with significant security baked in, else you-know-what will ensue.