Optus has moved to play down the implications of the copyright ruling on its 'TV Now' service for lucrative deals covering exclusive rights to deliver popular free-to-air content to mobile devices
"Smart grids are like a hacker's wet dream," IRA Winkler, president of
Internet Security Advisors Group, told a press briefing at RSA
Conference Europe in London this week.
The essential problem is that smart grid devices like intelligent power
meters are PC-based and are thus subject to all the vulnerabilities of
any computer system. "Smart grids are essentially computers that have a
special purpose," Winkler said.
An added complication is that the means of updating smart grid
equipment when vulnerabilities are detected is not clear. "If somebody
finds a single vulnerability, who is going to be responsible for
upgrading it?"
While electricity networks are often government regulated even in
markets like Australia where power supply is being privatised, that
doesn't necessarily simplify the issue, Winkler said. "Just imagine if
the government said 'We are sending government agents to update all
your systems.'"
Overall mistrust of computer reliability might also be a problem,
Winkler suggested. "Do you want that smart grid in your house to be
able to reboot?"
Security on major infrastructure for electricity and other services is
generally quite poor, Winkler noted. "The problem is that those
infrastructures were not designed with this kind of threat in mind."
Dieneke Koster
| Until recently, having employees using their personal smartphones or tablets for work could have landed CIOs in hot water, but with what is bel…
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