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
As Bob has already shown, it's not "broadband" that is the issue. Forget the enormous costs ($440/home) shown in the IEEE article. A much greater issue is ownership, control, and boundaries (which come up between utility/consumer and, in this mode, utility/telco). Any system operated by a 3rd party has implications for predictability and control. SLAs are fine, but I know of a smart metering system that failed because the carrier found the penalty lower than the profit margin on sending SMSs (text messages) for paying (non-negotiated bulk) consumers. Meter reading is fine - you can wait, but real-time and *control* applications over WiMax or any other carrier, shared network? One has to think carefully. Rahul On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 4:35 AM, Bob Frankston <Bob19-0501@bobf.frankston.com> wrote: > 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 > > >