More than 3.6m smart meters have already been installed in homes and businesses and 53m are due by 2020.Ĭonsumers will foot the bill for the £10.9bn programme through their energy bills, at an average cost of £215 per home, the committee said.Īdvocates say the meters’ ability to show people how much energy they are using will encourage consumers to switch off lights or buy more efficient appliances, lowering their bills and cutting greenhouse gas pollution from electricity generation. The committee’s report added: “It would be unfortunate if unwarranted concerns in media reports about smart meter security diminished public trust in the programme. “But the government will need to do more to convince and reassure customers that the technology is safe from being hacked.” “GCHQ’s involvement in designing the security for the smart metering system gives confidence that security is being taken seriously,” said Tania Mathias, a Conservative MP and the committee’s interim chair. MPs were told that layers of security controls had been built into the system to prevent mass disconnection, and special arrangements had been made to vet people with “access to sensitive system components”. The Commons committee held a private meeting with a representative from GCHQ, Britain’s electronic intelligence agency, after the Financial Times reported in March that the agency had intervened to secure the smart meter system against hackers.ĭisruption to energy and gas supplies at a massive scale is possible The academy added that “disruption to energy and gas supplies at a massive scale is possible”. “If somebody could hack into that or turn off very large numbers of meters by mistake, the sudden shock of taking them off the grid … would cause significant damage,” he said. “If I were working for one of those companies, I could insert code that would make every meter turn off on a particular date in a year’s time,” he said, adding the inclusion of an isolation switch in every smart meter was “an unnecessary risk”. Nick Hunn, a wireless technology consultant, said he was worried about the risk of “rogue programmers” in metering companies. Ministers need to do more to convince homeowners that the UK’s new £11bn smart meter system is safe from hackers, say MPs, who have been warned the devices could be used to sabotage power grids.Įxperts from the Royal Academy of Engineering and private technology companies have raised concerns about the meters’ security, according to a report from the Commons science and technology committee.
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