Emma Bailey
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In the 2001 remake of Ocean’s 11, a troupe of con artists use an over-sized green tube, “the pinch,” to black out all of Las Vegas using an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Unfortunate as it may be for the film industry, the only such EMP catalyst that exists is a nuclear explosion.
Nevertheless, U.S. citizens worry that criminals no longer have to resort to
nuclear weapons or other science-fiction worthy tactics to overtake the grid. In every home there will be a soft underbelly, allowing hackers to steal private data, remotely disconnect appliances, and even black out the neighborhood. The chink in the armor: the smart meter, head honcho of The Internet of Things.
A smart meter is an online utility meter that measures the consumption of water, natural gas and electricity in a home. Through wireless transmission via radio frequency (RF) wave signals, the usage data is provided to the utility company, which supposedly uses the data to “optimize” electricity rates and schedule power generation. More
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