House meters (via rutgers)
Here in the United States AMR’s (Automatic Meter Reading) are being retrofitted (or installed outright) to adapt to building meters for easier monitoring by electric, water and gas companies. There are several different kinds of AMR’s that include touch technology (meter readers use hand-held devices to collect info through a wand or probe), radio frequency network (data is collected through hand-held devices, mobile ‘drive-by’s’, or through a fixed network) and meters equipped with Wi-Fi (data can be collected from remote locations). All of the versions collect information such as consumption, status and diagnostic data that companies gather into a central database for automated billing, analyzing and troubleshooting problems.
However, the respected companies aren’t the only ones who gather this data as ‘ease of use data acquisition’ makes it easy for criminals to do the same. A recent study conducted by computer engineering students, led by Ishtiaq Rouf, from the University of South Carolina found that they could intercept the data transmitted and ‘reverse engineer’ the signals to monitor the readings. They were able to do this with around $1,000 US of off-the-shelf radio equipment (a first-gen Universal Software Radio Peripheral along with an RFX900 and WBX daughterboard) and readily available on-line tutorials on how to grab and analyze the transmitted data. They found that they could simultaneously read almost 500 data meters from a distance of 300 meters and found that readings (power/water usage) would significantly drop while the occupants were at work or on vacation.
Essentially any criminal with very little knowledge or training in monitoring and grabbing Wi-Fi or radio signals could identify which houses were empty at any given point in time. Perhaps the utility companies could set aside some of their profits to secure their communication devices or we could end up with not-so-happy holidays this year.
Cabe