In an interview with SmartPlanet.com, Van Meter said that smart readers and routers at substations are vulnerable points in the smart grid.
“The sheer volume of interactive devices on two-way networks is the biggest risk. By the end of 2015 we will have 440 million new hackable points on the grid. Nobody’s equipped to deal with that today. Right now, if I wanted to cut off the power to your house, I’d climb the pole, and there’s a manual switch. Everything’s physical. Once we have a smart grid in place I could do that from China,” he said.
The worst case scenario would be if a hacker, which could be a terrorist organization or a foreign government, is able to cause problems in the right places at the right time to destabilize the entire grid, shutting down power to whole cities or even states.
“Let’s say you have nine substations in an area, and you’re moving voltages up and down and it’s all balanced. Let’s say you blow up a substation – a tornado takes one out; or a saboteur takes one out; or you send messages through the network that take it out. Then the substations around it and those who rely on it for power would be out. Someone’s generators will come on line and those things will start to happen. The big transmission lines could be affected. It’s a big domino effect, so the big risk is that someone would do a massive scale attack that could destabilize the grid,” he explained.
Lockheed Martin offers cybersecurity products and services to electricity suppliers. The company works with utilities in complying with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s Critical Infrastructure cybersecurity requirements. If utilities do not comply with the cybersecurity requirements, they can be fined up to $1 million per day, Van Meter said. The company also works with utilities to implement cybersecurity best practices and has set up a center for utilities to share cybersecurity information.