The smart grid has received significant attention from policy makers as a way to address global warming, efficient energy utilization, and kickstart the economy. Yet there are numerous information security challenges that remain to be addressed. One significant challenge is privacy.
The “smart meters” that are deemed an inherent part of the new power grid will be able to collect and relay very detailed information about our electricity consumption. This information may then be shared, stored, and retained not only by your power-utility but also other third parties. Google and Microsoft already have products targetting this market.
A lot of information about our private lives can be derived from this usage data. For illustration purposes, consider the diagram below.
Smart Grid Privacy*
We’ll have more to post on this topic later.
For more information, please visit:
- Smart Grid NISTIR 7628: A draft Intra-Agency Report on Smart Grid Security, including mention of privacy issues.
- Smart Grid Privacy Concerns: October 2009 – A detailed catalog of privacy smart grid threats authored by Rebecca Herold (The Privacy Professor). Rebecca is also a member of an NIST working group working on the privacy-related issues within NISTIR 7628.
- NIST – Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Project.
* Source for image: Elias Leake Quinn, Smart Metering & Privacy: Existing Law and Competing Policies, A Report for the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, Spring 2009.