The US Government is looking to deploy a Smart Grid infrastructure and this would a big step forward in the quest of “removing” our dependence on fossil fuels, and making use of clean energies. However, the Smart Grid technology has a massive flaw – cybersecurity. According to a study conducted by IOActive, these digitally-based electricity distributions systems can be hacked by almost anyone and the repercussions will be massive blackouts.

IOActive is a professional security services company and they claim that a hacker (or as many call it, some kid in a basement) with $500 worth of equipment, some knowledge in software engineering and electronics, can get himself into the Smart Grid system and then control the electricity distribution on thousand of miles. After the hacker breaks into the system, he can shut electricity down leaving thousands of homes and businesses in a massive blackout.

In the study, IOActive also confirms that hackers can increase or decrease the amount of power on a local power grid which will disrupt the power load balance and eventually cause another blackout. This would be only a so-called “localized power outage”, but it can be spread to other power grids meaning that we will face with a massive blackout. Experts say that it’s not possible to predict where this cascade of blackouts will be spread, but the consequences are very clear and very alarming.

Although people cannot wait for the Smart Grid to enter online, IOActive experts say that this will have to wait as the grids are not cyber-safe and they are very vulnerable to hackers as there are no cybersecurity standards for Smart Grids.

“There are a lot of discussions about where the requirements will come from and who will be ultimately responsible,” said a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

Many experts back the Smart Grids as “the benefits outweigh the risks”, but none of them advise State officials to invest in this infrastructure, and the reasons are obvious. However, Smart Grids will be deployed very soon, but if they are not safe what should we do? Experts say that these security problem will have to be solved quickly, before the technology enters online. For the moment we can’t do anything about it, we just have to put ourselves in the hands of experts. I wonder how safe is that, but do we have other alternatives?