Smart Meter Hack Shuts Off The Lights

Quelle: www.darkreading.com


European researchers will reveal major security weaknesses in smart meters that could allow an attacker to order a power blackout.

A widely deployed smart meter device can be programmed to cause a power blackout or commit power usage fraud.


Researchers Javier Vazquez Vidal and Alberto Garcia Illera will reveal this month at Black Hat Europe in Amsterdam how they reverse engineered smart meters and found blatant security weaknesses that allowed them to commandeer the devices to shut down power or perform electricity usage fraud over the power line communications network. 


The smart meter device Vazquez Vidal and Garcia Illera tested stores the same pair of symmetric AES-128 encryption keys inside every such device. An attacker who lifted these keys would be able to send commands -- including an order to shut down power -- directly to the smart meter.


"There were very scary things we found. You can practically turn the lights off in a city or neighborhood"


The really bad news is that there's nothing smart meter customers can do to defend against an attack.

Kommentare: 1 (Diskussion geschlossen)
  • #1

    Plötzlich Blackout! (Donnerstag, 02 Oktober 2014 21:06)

    Was Forscher können, können andere auch, vor allem wenn es um viel Geld geht. Oder noch schlimmer, wenn es andere Motive gibt, wie etwa in Marc Elsberg's Thriller "Blackout - Morgen ist es zu spät". Cyber Security Austria hat seit Anbeginn auf die unkalkulierbaren Risiken, insbesondere in der derzeit vorgesehenen Konfiguration (Stichwort "Breaker").

    Die massive Vernetzung durch Smart-Technologien schafft weitere Verwundbarkeiten in unserer kritischten Infrastruktur. Gleichzeitig sind wir in keinster Weise auf (Teil-)Ausfälle vorbereitet.