SMETS 2 … A Step Forward in Energy Saving or a Backdoor To Bring Down A Country?

The roll-out of smart meters in the UK has been a bit of a farce, and its roll-out has been delayed for over three years. Now SMETS (Smart Metering Equipment Technical Specification) 2 is on its way, and many are worried that it could become a spy in your home, and which could even result in a large-scale power outage. The smart meter infrastructure was proposed in 2009, and where virtually every home was to have a smart meter by 2020.

It is thought that the most serious risk is a ‘man in the middle attack’, where a fake receiver inserts itself between the smart meter and the supplier, and which could stop messages from being received.

A Major Design Flaw

The state of understanding of cryptography in is generally weak, and many systems are flawed in the way the integrate it. Companies, for example, often have little idea about where their encryption keys are stored, and who has access to them. There is still a feeling too in the design of systems that security is seen as an after thought … “we’ll build it, and then secure it!”.