Smart electricity meters are useful because they allow energy utilities to efficiently track energy use and allocate energy production. But because they’re connected to a grid, they can also serve as back doors for malicious hackers.
Cybersecurity researcher Karthik Pattabiraman, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UBC, recently developed an automated program aimed at improving the security of these devices and boosting security in the smart grid.
“Our program uses two detection methods for these types of attacks. First, we created a virtual model of the smart meter and represented how attacks can be carried out against it. This is what we call design-level analysis. Second, we performed code-level analysis. That means probing the smart meter’s code for vulnerabilities, launching a variety of attacks on these vulnerabilities,” said Pattabiraman.
The method, described here, addresses smart meters’ vulnerability to what the researchers call software-interference attacks, where the attacker physically accesses the meter and modifies its communication interfaces or reboots it. As a result, the meter is unable to send data to the grid, or it keeps sending data when it shouldn’t, or performs other actions it wouldn’t normally do.
Pattabiraman and his co-author and former PhD student, Farid Tabrizi, also found that although both techniques successfully discovered attacks against the system, code-level analysis was both more efficient and more accurate than design-level analysis. Code-level analysis found nine different types of attacks within an hour, while design-level analysis found only three. All of the attacks can be carried out by an attacker with relatively low cost-equipment purchased for less than $50 online, and do not require specialized expertise.
“Smart meters are critical components of th ..
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