Applied Cyber Security and the Smart Grid by Eric D. Knapp & Raj Samani & Joel Langill

Author:Eric D. Knapp & Raj Samani & Joel Langill
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780124046382
Publisher: Elsevier Inc.
Published: 2013-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.1 Power usage to personal activity mapping—from NISTIR 7628.

Perhaps, letting third parties know about the appliances you use in your home is not an issue. It is not as though your medical records are being shared publicly? However, there have been a number of “worst cases” and in some cases farfetched scenarios presented that have raised some significant concerns by consumers. Some of these examples include the use by law enforcement to review the energy consumption of properties to determine whether, for example, marijuana is being grown! While this may seem one of those scenarios, we class under the farfetched category, consider that in Ohio, there are at least 60 subpoenas filed by law enforcement seeking customer’s energy records from power companies.6 This technique is confirmed as effective by enforcement, and according to a spokesperson from American Electric Power, they commented “We’re obligated when we get these requests. There’s not an option to say no.” Ultimately, the net result is that law enforcement are provided with information about the subscriber, including the billing details. It would be fair to say that when the grid becomes ubiquitous, more detailed information is available that the number of subpoenas is likely to increase. While this example may seem perfectly reasonable, and for those of you that are not marijuana growers, the risk that the Smart Grid can allow law enforcement the opportunity to undertake non-intrusive, real-time surveillance is of little concern. However, this particular use case does represent a very interesting precedent, the case in question is Kyllo v. United States; in this particular case, the government used the monthly energy records for its case against a suspected marijuana grower to demonstrate that the power usage of the suspect was deemed as excessive and in line with that of a marijuana growing operation. The case, however, demonstrated a very interesting precedent pertaining to the privacy interest under the Fourth Amendment. This contains a “search and seizure” provision that requires warrants before the government can invade one’s internal space. In this particular case, the Supreme Court stated.

“We think that obtaining by sense-enhancing technology any information regarding the interior of the home that could not otherwise have been obtained without physical intrusion into a constitutionally protected area, constitutes a search [and is] presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.”7

The case in question had some additional facets that related to the government’s use of thermal imaging to determine the areas of the house that were hotter than other parts. The court ultimately found that the Kyto had a reasonable expectation of privacy as the government used a technology not in general use.

One thing is clear that the use of a thermal imager was able to reveal a considerable amount of information related to the activities of the suspect, but if we consider smart meters—they can reveal considerably more. In this particular case (and as we saw with the statistics demonstrated in Ohio), law enforcement will invariably request the energy usage records from the grid operator/energy company. In this particular case the third-party doctrine of the Fourth Amendment will clearly apply.

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