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 Just like building a house that can withstand
storms, building a smart grid device requires a secure operating system
as the foundation. Starting with a proven, secure operating system
deployed in thousands of critical applications forms the groundwork on
which security for an intelligent grid can be built.
The smart energy market is hot. Just like a pressure cooker, there are many opposing forces pushing and pulling on the smart grid
infrastructure, creating friction, heat, and opportunity. At the core,
business challenges are colliding with technical and political
challenges. There is money to be made by the utilities as well as grid
component suppliers, and consumers will benefit from lower energy costs
and more reliable energy. Politically, opposing forces are spouting
concerns with privacy of information and even health hazards caused by
the deployment and operation of smart energy equipment.
In
its current state, the smart grid infrastructure is antiquated,
completely insecure, incapable of supporting future energy demands, and
not resilient to attack or system-level failures. That all said,
utilities are rushing technology to market to provide automation and
efficiency without any real consideration for security
or reliability in their devices. At the next level down, in homes and
businesses, the same can be said of the smart appliances that are being
deployed.
Who is factoring security and
reliability into their devices? There are huge ramifications for
massively deploying insecure technology. Unfortunately, given the
business drivers, it will likely take a catastrophic event to trigger
government, utilities, and component manufacturers to come to the
realization that they cannot sacrifice security and reliability without
some different technology coming to bear.
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