Hacks of Smart Meters to Headline the Black Hat Europe 2014 Lineup

Today, Black Hat, highlighted some of the nearly 50 high-intensity Briefings selected for Black Hat Europe 2014. Returning for its 14th year, Black Hat Europe will welcome the world's brightest information security professionals and researchers to reveal vulnerabilities that impact everything from the latest mobile and consumer devices to critical international infrastructure. This year's show will run October 14-17 at the Amsterdam RAI.

“Lights Off! The Darkness of the Smart Meters,” will be one of the featured talks at this year’s event. “We all know that connected devices are uprising, and this enables more overall control over them. But what happens when that control is used against you? How can a device, which is supposed to make your life easier, be used against you? Does it really mean, when you read "AES, Triple DES, RSA, etc..." in a device specification, that it is really secure?” the abstract for this talk asks.

“We will talk about a device that is present in all houses, a smart power meter. This model is being installed in all houses and buildings, and it's already present in the 65% of the "paella" country. We will show the process necessary to rip off any device, taking the meter as "demo hardware," and the possibilities that this procedure could bring, including firmware and hardware reverse engineering. As a small preview, these smart meters are capable of cutting down the power supply by receiving remote commands. Oh, and by default, they are not able to "talk" between them,” the abstract concludes.