Survey Sheds Light on Smart Grid Security Concerns

More than 70 percent of energy security professionals believe smart grid security standards cannot keep pace with the ever-changing technology and threats, according to a recent survey sponsored by nCircle and EnergySec, a public-private partnership funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The online survey, conducted in March, questioned 104 participants in the energy and utility industry about current smart grid security measures. Seventy-five percent agreed that security has not been adequately addressed in smart grid deployment, and 61 percent stated that smart meter installations do not have sufficient security controls to protect against false data injection. These types of attacks compromise data integrity across the smart grid infrastructure by introducing errors while bypassing existing techniques for detecting bad measurements. According to Patrick Miller, founder and chief executive officer of EnergySec, security has been addressed in varying degrees, but the challenge is keeping up with the evolving security landscape, which outpaces the traditional standards process.