{"id":4065,"date":"2012-04-12T12:31:52","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T19:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=4065"},"modified":"2015-01-07T22:00:58","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T05:00:58","slug":"hacking-expert-david-chalk-joins-urgent-call-to-halt-smart-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=4065","title":{"rendered":"Hacking Expert David Chalk Joins Urgent Call to Halt Smart Grid"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20120412005992\/en\/Hacking-Expert-David-Chalk-Joins-Urgent-Call<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

– For immediate release, 12 April 2012 –<\/strong><\/p>\n

“100% certainty of catastrophic failure of energy grid within 3 years unless course is changed”<\/strong><\/p>\n

VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(<\/strong>BUSINESS WIRE<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The vulnerability of the energy industry’s\u00a0new wireless smart grid will inevitably lead to lights out for everyone, according to leading cyber\u00a0expert David Chalk. In an online interview for an upcoming documentary film entitled ‘Take Back<\/p>\n

Your Power’ (www.thepowerfilm.org), Chalk says the entire power grid will be at risk to being\u00a0taken down by cyber attack, and if installations continue it’s only a matter of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless we wake up and realize what we’re doing, there is 100% certainty of total catastrophic\u00a0failure of the entire power infrastructure within 3 years\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re in a state of crisis,\u201d said Chalk. \u201cThe front door is open and there is no lock to be had.<\/p>\n

There is not a power meter or device on the grid that is protected from hacking – if not already\u00a0infected – with some sort of trojan horse that can cause the grid to be shut down or completely\u00a0annihilated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most amazing things that has happened to mankind in the last 100 years is the\u00a0Internet. It’s given us possibility beyond our wildest imagination. But we also know the\u00a0vulnerabilities that exist inside of it. And then we have the backbone, the power grid that powers\u00a0our nations. Those two are coming together. And it’s the smart meter on your home or business\u00a0that’s now allowing that connectivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2c1sadZCO60#!<\/p>\n

Chalk also issued a challenge to governments, media and technology producers to show him one\u00a0piece of digital technology that is hack-proof.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe computer companies that are involved, the manufacturers that are involved, bring forward a<\/p>\n

technology and I will show you that it’s penetrable,\u201d said Chalk. \u201cI’ll do it on national TV, I’ll do it\u00a0anywhere. But I can guarantee you 100% that there is nothing out there today \u2013 nothing \u2013 that\u00a0can’t be penetrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalk’s strong words come amidst increasing reports of the smart grid’s fatal insecurities, even\u00a0from the governments and energy companies who are forcing their hand with the smart program.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery endpoint [meter] is a new potential threat vector,\u201d according to Doug Powell, manager, SMI\u00a0Security, Privacy & Safety, for Canadian utility BC Hydro.<\/p>\n

And in an interview with energynow.com, former CIA Director James Woolsey was also highly\u00a0critical of energy policy makers, whose plans received multi-billion dollar funding as part of the\u00a0Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. \u201cThe so-called ‘smart grid’ that is as vulnerable as what we’ve got\u00a0now is not smart at all,\u201d said Woolsey. \u201cIt’s a really, really stupid grid.\u201d\u00a0technology and I will show you that it’s penetrable,\u201d said Chalk. \u201cI’ll do it on national TV, I’ll do it\u00a0anywhere. But I can guarantee you 100% that there is nothing out there today \u2013 nothing \u2013 that\u00a0can’t be penetrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalk’s strong words come amidst increasing reports of the smart grid’s fatal insecurities, even\u00a0from the governments and energy companies who are forcing their hand with the smart program.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery endpoint [meter] is a new potential threat vector,\u201d according to Doug Powell, manager, SMI\u00a0Security, Privacy & Safety, for Canadian utility BC Hydro.<\/p>\n

And in an interview with energynow.com, former CIA Director James Woolsey was also highly\u00a0critical of energy policy makers, whose plans received multi-billion dollar funding as part of the\u00a0Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. \u201cThe so-called ‘smart grid’ that is as vulnerable as what we’ve got\u00a0now is not smart at all,\u201d said Woolsey. \u201cIt’s a really, really stupid grid.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there’s more. In an audit released in January, the US Inspector General Gregory Friedman was\u00a0also highly critical. \u201cWithout a formal risk assessment and associated mitigation strategy, threats\u00a0and weaknesses may go unidentified and expose the … systems to an unacceptable level of risk,\u201d\u00a0Friedman wrote.\u00a0Energy officials knew of these weaknesses but approved plans for the projects anyway, auditors\u00a0said. \u201cThe initial weaknesses had not always been fully addressed, and did not include a number of\u00a0security practices commonly recommended for federal government and industry systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

And security is not the only technologically-based obstacle faced by smart grid proponents. In\u00a0March, alarm bells were rung following current CIA Director David Patraeus’ confirmation that\u00a0governments will use wireless smart appliances to spy on citizens. \u201cItems of interest will be\u00a0located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radiofrequency\u00a0identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters,\u201d<\/p>\n

Patraeus said at a meeting of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. He added that this will\u00a0prompt a rethink of \u201cour notions of identity and secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n

With strong criticism to the smart grid now coming from many directions, energy corporations and\u00a0governments now have the challenge to explain to an increasingly unapproving public why they\u00a0continue to fast-track smart grid installations.<\/p>\n

Citizen groups and organizations throughout the US, Canada and Europe have launched legal\u00a0actions to stop the installation of smart meters. They cite issues such as cost increases, health risks, privacy concerns, grid vulnerability and the lack of democratic process. In Chalk’s home\u00a0province of British Columbia, Citizens for Safe Technology (www.citizensforsafetechnology.org) and\u00a0the BC Coalition to Stop Smart Meters are leading a growing challenge.<\/p>\n

Options for opting out of the smart metering program have been announced in markets including\u00a0California, Maine, Vermont, Louisiana, Michigan, Connecticut, Quebec, the UK and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

In the US, several regions including the counties of Santa Cruz and Marin are enforcing outright\u00a0moratoriums.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless we wake up and realize what we’re doing, there is 100% certainty of total catastrophic\u00a0failure of the entire power infrastructure within 3 years,\u201d said Chalk. \u201cThis could actually be worse\u00a0than a nuclear war, because it would happen everywhere. How governments and utilities are\u00a0blindly merging the power grid with the Internet, and effectively without any protection, is insanity\u00a0at its finest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full video interview with David Chalk can be seen on www.thepowerfilm.org. The\u00a0feature film documentary ‘Take Back Your Power’, which critically examines the smart\u00a0grid program, will be released online this spring.<\/p>\n

Contacts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Josh del Sol, 604-629-7945<\/strong><\/p>\n

Producer, Take Back Your Power<\/strong><\/p>\n

josh@thebigpitcher.org<\/strong><\/p>\n

www.ThePowerFilm.org<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lori Patrick, 778-384-1601<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Executive Assistant to David Chalk<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

lori@chalkcorp.com<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

www.davidchalkinc.com<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

[button link=”http:\/\/www.citizensforsafetechnology.org\/uploads\/scribd\/catastrophic_failure_of_grid.pdf”] Download the PDF[\/button]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20120412005992\/en\/Hacking-Expert-David-Chalk-Joins-Urgent-Call – For immediate release, 12 April 2012 – “100% certainty of catastrophic failure of energy grid within 3 years unless course is changed” VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE) The vulnerability of the energy industry’s\u00a0new wireless smart grid will inevitably lead to lights out for everyone, according to leading cyber\u00a0expert David Chalk. In an online interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,17,147,114,146,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bchydro","category-bc","category-hacking","category-privacy","category-security","category-smart-meter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4065"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5161,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065\/revisions\/5161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}