As US court bans smart meter blueprints from public, sysadmin tells of fight for security info The sysadmin-activist at the center of a bizarre legal battle over a smart meter network in Seattle, Washington, says he never expected a simple records request to turn into a lawsuit. Phil Mocek told The Register that when he asked Seattle City Light, a public power utility, to provide details on the designs and rollout of …
I saw this story earlier in the week and went to the download page for the files but got side tracked so didnt download the files. I wish i had now. being "in Europe" im positive the authorities would be even more up in arms that the data had gone to a foreign country and was putting the city in danger. anyone have a Mirror where we can get the original files from. ones its on the internet its never going away even with the EU right to be forgotten law.
"Makes one wonder what they are trying to hide."
They probably don't know. This sounds like a knee-jerk reaction by folks who don't understand anything about security. Just for the LOLs, though, it might be fun to tell them that ISIS have downloaded the blueprints and they are welcome to fly out to northern Syria and ask for them back.
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NonSense "It is possible for info to be data mined from the electrical grid."
What's "possible" in your imagination, and what's possible within the limited space available inside a smart power meter are two very different things.
In your imagination, why don't they just install their Tempest listening station in a rented building and connect it to the grid there?
Smart meters have high speed data logging capablity and can be programmed to take a reading every minute, for example, of instantaneous power and phase angle. They can tell the difference between a resistive and inductive load, when it was being used and for how long. So yes, quite a bit of data mining capability. You should look into the UK smart metering program. All the docs are online. Will allow dynamic charging rates, remote load shedding etc and much, much more...
<quote>Makes one wonder what they are trying to hide.</quote>
To the meter makers:
If YOU have done (are doing) nothing WRONG!!!! then WHAT do you have to HIDE?????
Somewhere there is the stench of corrupt/underhanded dealings going on.
And those IN ON IT, don't want the public to know exactly HOW they are getting FUCKED!
Here in Flori-duh, the stench of political corruption was quite evident when the state legislature decided to allow DPuke Energy to fuck over its customers as a result of its manglement decision to perform D-I-Y repairs on the Crystal River nuke plant.
Read for yourself:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/broken-crystal-river-nuclear-plant-is-duke-energys-problem-now/1239145 (on how Progress Energy bamboozled Duke WRT the condition of Crystal River)
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/duke-energy-announces-closing-of-crystal-river-nuclear-power-plant/1273794 (The first 4 paragraphs puts it in a nutshell)
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/duke-energy-florida-fpl-sued-to-end-higher-rates-forced-on-customers-for/2266427
The nuclear plant 'recovery option' was courtesy of the bought and paid for state legislature:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/senate-committee-rejects-plan-to-nix-nuclear-tax/1214270
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/legislators-clash-over-what-to-do-about-paying-for-nuclear-plants/1213935
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/florida-house-rejects-attempts-to-repeal-nuclear-fees/2118425
Judging by the fight put up by the meter vendors, those on the receiving end may be on to SOMETHING that someone wants to hide.
KEEP ON DIGGING!!!! Who knows what kind of shit you may unearth.
It did not look like anything was mentioned about an NDA in the article... that would have been a good approach, especially if he wanted to look at security.
He could have made a contract, where perhaps he would get paid a bounty!
That is... if he was qualified and had some kind of history of investigating security issues. If not, trying to find security flaws in the power infrastructure while simultaneously posting documents on the internet sounds either foolish (demonstrating he was not qualified) or sinister (demonstrating the lawyers had reason to file a suit.)
A systems administrator knows that trying to gain access by bypassing security is breaking the law... which means he can be fired for it. He should have known better, with the title he has in the article.
Sounds like we are not getting the whole story.
Dude, which part of PUBLIC RECORDS ACT are you confused about?
He hasn't asked for the secret stuff, he's asked for the PUBLIC RECORDS. Which are, you know, PUBLIC.
This is no science project, it's simply a taxpayer / ratepayer asking a publicly owned entity (Seattle City Light) to provide the RECORDS that it has, in accordance with the law.
By my reading:
The man made the request and was given proprietary information to which he was not legally entitled. He asked for that proprietary info and was given redacted stuff deemed proprietary by the company.
Now he wants permission to see it so he can reassure himself about the security provisions made by the company.
This seems to be an attempt to bully the company into giving him something he has no legal right to. All I was saying is that *if* the "freedom fighter" is so concerned about his personal security, there was a quieter, less public way to go about asking for the info which might actually have stood a chance of getting the information.
But of course, that isn't the "proper hacktivist" way of going about things. You have to kick and scream and generally behave like a two year old on a bad day so you'll have public cred.
But not the info.
"By my reading:"
Your reading is wrong.
1) Man asks public utility for info that should be publicly available.
2) Public utility provides info.
3) Man posts supplied publicly available info to the web, for access by the public.
4) Smart meter companies decide that too much info was given, and some of it shouldn't be publicly available.
5) Smart meter company starts suing.
http://www.alipac.us/f19/angry-customers-return-smartmeters-245780/index2.html
Briefly - it looks like there have been a lot of fires associated with Sensus devices. Here's a partial quote: "utility provider SaskPower to announce that it would be removing all of them". I'd take this with a grain of salt, I haven't heard of problems like this from other sources. You'd think that houses being burned down would be a major news story.
from that link
"Every “smart” digital electric meter has what’s known as a “switching mode power supply”, which is proven to directly create large amounts of dirty electricity (DE) – or high-frequency energy radiating throughout your home’s electric circuits, essentially creating an antenna cage. The levels of DE caused by “smart” meters can be several hundred times higher than some international safety standards."
'Twas at that point my inner voice started screaming "Bullshit", these smart meters seem to have issues but don't spoil the case by using this sort of crap.
"Every “smart” digital electric meter has what’s known as a “switching mode power supply”...
So do PCs and many other devices. The "dirty power" is perhaps a reference to the bad old days before power factor correction, which, IIRC, meant that you'd draw more power (for your kit) than you paid for, due to the current lagging (or leading? can't remember).
Bigger problem is Big Brother (Big Bother) being able to control said meter and causing instant brown/blackouts. And as various SCADA adventures have shown, it's potentially (sorry) a hacker's paradise...
"Not all of them have a 100+A contactor inside."
I thought I'd read that the supplier-provided smart meters in the EU were required to have a power cut off device but it wasn't legally permissible to use it in the UK. Yet.
I also see no reason why such a device would need to be a proper isolating contactor, maybe just something (a nice solid state relay?) that permits remotely killing the customer's supply when there's an issue at local or grid level. Because, state of emergency, terrists, etc.
The previous safety cutout will still be wherever it used to be.
Correction welcome. Tinfoil hats also.
Use a good old-fashioned transformer then in the PS and throw a capacitor and/or choke in the circuit for power factor correction if you must. Might even be more reliable and surge resistant than a ton of cheap switching power supplies, and thus cheaper in the long run. I have yet to see a doorbell transformer or wall-wart die of natural causes except in extreme old age, while switchers expire left and right.
Can you remember just how big and heavy a transformer was for a decent output PSU?
In the old days most TVs and many radios omitted the transformer and used a less bulky resistor to drop the voltage for the valves' heaters. That also allowed for the DC mains supplies in some areas. If you connected the two-pin plug the wrong way on AC mains - there would be a distinct tingle from the wooden case.
Having said that - some apparently kosher small switching supplies have enough leakage to make you jump if not under load. In the early days of switching supplies for computers the earth conductor was very substantial to handle the leakage.
Having said that - some apparently kosher small switching supplies have enough leakage to make you jump if not under load. In the early days of switching supplies for computers the earth conductor was very substantial to handle the leakage.
If it's the kind without an earth connection, then the usual thing is for the negative side of the secondary to be connected to live and neutral via about 3nF of capacitance, presumably for EMC purposes. This means that in the absence of anything else, a UK PSU will look like a 120V AC source in series with 1Mohm impedance, so if you grab it and a convenient earth you'll be tickled by about 120uA of current, which is enough to feel.
If you've got a suitable multimeter you can try it - put it on AC volts and measure between earth and the PSU output, then on AC current and do the same thing and you'll get something in the ballpark of those numbers.
"Can you remember just how big and heavy a transformer was for a decent output PSU?"
Yeah, but how much juice could the electronics in this actually use? 10W maybe, or about as much as a clock radio? I'd think the transformer needed would only be about 1/2 the size of a computer mouse, if that, smaller if you used a toroidal.
Extreme old age is a relative term. In my block each flat has a mechanical sub meter installed in 1938. They all still work perfectly. Will any smart meter installed today still be functioning in 80 years time?
"The "dirty power" is perhaps a reference to the bad old days before power factor correction..."
The free wireless power monitor supplied by my power company is a very coarse measurement device. Its readings often lag several minutes after a device has been switched on or off.
Bought a Belkin device that measures the consumption of individual devices via their mains lead. It was interesting how many, but not all, small-ish switching supplies registered no power consumption - presumably because of their power factor.
Any power monitoring device that can't see the voltage as well as the current is a power guessing device, because of power factor.
So something that just clips round the conductor next to the meter is a guesser. It measures current but not voltage. It needs to be told the voltage, and has no knowledge of phase angle between volts and amps, and thus can only estimate the maximum power consumption.
The little meters that plug into a socket and the appliance under test then plugs into the meter can see both volts and amps and therefore could in principle give you both kW and kVA and kVA reactive, if they bothered implementing enough circuitry. Do they? Who knows.
Mostly it won't matter much. Stuff that eats lots of amps is supposed to have near-unity power factor these days. Emphasis on "supposed to".
>The "dirty power" is perhaps a reference to the bad old days before power factor correction,
You sure it's not a reference to the Heavy Electricity scandal back in the 90s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCGO_jikBtM
The real resonance for smart meters is that they can disconnect you remotely if you don't pay on time
Disclaimer: I work for a power company.
The process to disconnect a customer with a smart meter is exactly the same as the process without one. Granted, the actual disconnection step is a lot easier (and cheaper). But the legally mandated restrictions around taking that step are exactly the same.
If you have an old-fashioned meter, and we have to send someone to your house to disconnect you, guess who we're going to charge for that? That's $75 added to your bill right there. And, believe it or not, another $75 to be reconnected again.
If you have a smart meter? Not only can you be reconnected within half an hour, but the whole operation will only cost you $20 (each way, so that's $40 in total instead of $150).
Of course, if we've done it wrongfully (without sending you the legally mandated warnings within the required timeframe), you can sue us. But that's true either way.
In terms of disconnections, smart meters are a huge gain for the customer.
The process to disconnect a customer with a smart meter is exactly the same as the process without one
...At the moment.
What happens when the baseload supply diminishes as power stations are closed, but demand keeps on rising? My money's on emergency powers being brought in to enable temporary disconnections via smart meter to protect the grid. And we're straight back to the 1970s again.
It's always a mistake to assume that a greedy/desperate government won't change an existing law to protect themselves.
Vic.
'Twas at that point my inner voice started screaming "Bullshit"
Indeed, but crappy switchmode supplies radiating RF hash into the house wiring is a problem that affects low band radio reception. I spent several months 30 years ago tracing landmobile interference to the switchmode PSUs on new 140Mb/s digital microwave equipment in the building next to the landmobile station, then designing mitigation/suppression for the problem and handing the fixes back to Fujitsu.
Domestic smartmeter RF hash is almost as bad as the hash that smartplugs intentionally inject into the wiring.
"You'd think that houses being burned down would be a major news story."
The way most meters are fitted, if they catch fire it should be contained in the casing and not spread to the structure.
Still this is going to get interesting. From being a simple FOI request, I'd say Sensus is about to find its code gone through with a tick comb by a few hundred people who it won't be able to silence.
My PC's switchmode PSU died a fiery death last year. The damage was contained to the PSU chassis, but with a little bad luck, maybe a sheet of paper dangling behind the PC, I could imagine it starting a house fire if nobody had been home to unplug it. I can imagine mice or insects bringing flammable materials into a smart meter.
Aside from fire, given the rule of thumb that PSUs should be replaced every 5 years (or less?) when reliability is paramount, it seems rather retarded to put them in electric meters. Maintenance nightmare.
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