NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Why it's hard to hack the power grid, and why NSA is the wrong choice to protect it
Even without all the political over tones the word "perfect' seems antithetical to the idea of resilience. Perhaps one of the "skilled employees" at the NSA it trying to signal a concern? This reminds me of Y2K reasoning in assuming that every system is very brittle and the only fix is to harden it. In fact the real lesson of Y2K and the Internet is the power of loose coupling and the constraints of best efforts which force you to deal with exceptions and verify information. It's not just about the NSA butting in but the larger problems with the so-called "Smart Grid" where all the old ideas seem to go to fester. There was a worrisome piece, WiMax for Smart Grids (http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/wimax-for-smart-grids) in IEEE Spectrum. While much of the confusion may be due to the author of the piece it does reflect much of this rigid sloppy thinking. The power industry has long been enamored with the idea of building its own network though finally, it seems, the Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) cited in the article may have finally been put to rest. The article itself uses a big number -- 300 billion bytes per year for the data from a million smart meters -- as a rationale for requiring a high speed network. Yet 3e11 bytes is 3e12 bits (10 bits/byte to round up) or (3e12/1e6) 3e6 bits per home per year or 1e4 per day (300 days rounding the result up) or 1e4/1e5 bits per second (rounding) or 1e-1 bits per second. 3e11 is a WAG but for those who want false precision 3e11*8/1e6/365.25/24/3600=.08bps. That's not exactly high speed. While it's tempting to comment on the article as a blooper reel the real question is the extent to which it reflects politician/regulator understanding. If the government wants to protect us against attacks shouldn't it be working on improving the resilience rather fostering a climate of brittle dependency? -----Original Message----- From: nnsquad-bounces+nnsquad=bobf.frankston.com@nnsquad.org [mailto:nnsquad-bounces+nnsquad=bobf.frankston.com@nnsquad.org] On Behalf Of Lauren Weinstein Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 14:22 To: nnsquad@nnsquad.org Subject: [ NNSquad ] Why it's hard to hack the power grid, and why NSA is the wrong choice to protect it Why it's hard to hack the power grid, and why NSA is the wrong choice to protect it http://bit.ly/9YJocq (Wired) --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator