US Government to lead Australian electricity cyber-security protection of planned electricity and and gas smart metering

First 9 of 9 paragraphs shown The lobby group for the seven firms which controlled electricity distribution networks wanted to develop - Australian electricity network developments to use USA standards and rules. The lobby group - ENA - would then rebadge the standards as ENA standards and resell them under the monopoly marketing deal it had with SAI Global.
The reason why: A financial beneficiary of the new standards, networks lobby group, ENA argued 'Security analysts showed, in April 2009, that they could gain unauthorised access to a utility’s smart metering network infrastructure'. Therefore, national security risk status was needed for new home services for electricity networks, argued the networks lobby.
US Government direction intended: National critical infrastructure protection measures were planned using direction from the USA, said the networks lobby group, ENA, which supported the pla n.
Will follow US model: “the importance of developing end-to-end cyber-security protection has been further highlighted by the United States government recently establishing a specific initiative to address the security concerns of smart networks”.
USA leads Australian National Institute of Standards and Technology?: This process is being run through the National Institute of Standards and Technology http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid, and this initiative encompasses the previous work undertaken in the United States on developing Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards.
Security to define new electricity products: ENA said “Depending on the level of risks identified and preventive measures, these security decisions will then determine the types of communication infrastructure and devices that an operator will choose for an application.
Spooknet: ‘Given the potential risk and the key dependency, it is suggested that Australia follow the overseas approach and give this issue significant national level attention to set widespread smart network security policies.
Spooks control the grid: Industry suggested that the matter be incorporated into national critical infrastructure protection measures and be reviewed by the appropriate national energy, Defense and the Attorney General’s departments to develop an appropriate path forward for the industry”.
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