Smart meters gain ground in APAC

Written by: David Heath | Published in: SecurityFor a category of devices intended to operate for 20 - 50 years, we sure are seeing a lot of early security problem with Smart Meters.

If you follow the energy sector, you’d be aware that the word “smart” gets bandied about quite a lot. Smart meters, smart cities and smart grids are all the rage. New South Wales based retailer and distributor EnergyAustralia has picked up a neat $100M as the winning bidder for the "Smart Grid, Smart City" project.

Victorian electricity companies Origin Energy and Jemena have launched smart meter compatible web portals to enable customers to access their usage data online and track their consumption.

A SIM card stolen from a smart meter has been used to rack up $193,187.43 in data and voice call charges, delivering an 18 month sentence and an order to repay the lot.

According to IDC’s latest report on smart device shipments, we’re in for a record-breaking holiday season.

IBM has announced a consulting, design and implementation service to help electricity utilities with the transformation to smart grids.

GE, in conjunction with a group of venture capital funds, has pledged to invest $US200 million in the best ideas to accelerate the development of a smart electricity grid.

When Apple first launched the “smart cover”, people wondered what happened to the all-round protection of the original black iPad 1 cover, but wonder no longer for the new Smart Case has evolved, and arrived!

{loadposition alex08}If you’ve ever wondered why Apple decided to ignore protecting the back of the iPad 2 and the new iPad when it designed last year’s Smart Cover, you haven’t been alone.

The CSIRO has debuted, at the CeBit show in Sydney, a smart metering system that it says can be installed at low cost and enable residential and small business users to remotely control their electricity usage via a web interface.