The ability to track your power usage via Google, is a perk I am looking forward to. Sure I could write down my meter reading everyday, but lets be honest. Unfortunately rushing into the smart meter era has some very negative side affects.

There’s just one problem: The newfangled meters needed to make the smart grid work are built on buggy software that’s easily hacked, said Mike Davis, a senior security consultant for IOActive. The vast majority of them use no encryption and ask for no authentication before carrying out sensitive functions such as running software updates and severing customers from the power grid. The vulnerabilities, he said, are ripe for abuse.

“We can switch off hundreds of thousands of homes potentially at the same time,” Davis, who has spent the past few months analyzing a half-dozen smart meters, told The Reg. “That starts providing problems that the power company may not be able to gracefully deal with.”

While having the ability to flick the power on and off would be entertaining, I want the hack to come out that we all really want. How can I make it so it only registers 1/4 of my actual power usage?

(Via The Register)