Observation Modeling with Credibility Factors and Mathematical Theory of Evidence

The Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is a set of smart meters and communication networks forming the basis of smart grid. These smart meters observe one’s energy consumption and communicate that information to customers, the local utility, and the grid. Steve McLaughlin presented his research on the security implications of the meter functionality. The penetration testing that was conducted employs an attack tree methodology, where the root of the tree defines a goal, e.g., committing energy theft. The subgoals are defined as the child nodes. Finally, the leaves determine the types of attack to mount. The results identify numerous vulnerabilities and exploits possible: by unplugging a meter from a phone connection at the right time, for example, one will be able to impersonate the meter using a regular computer and forge demand values. The work is published at CRITIS 2009.