Cyber Security Car Talk

Though I'm writing you from the land of Click and Clack, this piece is about a topic you'll probably not hear covered on their show. CNET journalist Elinor Mills, who I had the pleasure of meeting at the first Smart Grid Cyber Security Summit in San Jose in August, recently keyed: "Cars, the next hacking frontier." And as electric cars (and cars in general) have been on my mind lately, this really caught my eye.

As we've noted in previous posts, there are some surprising similarities in the ways previously isolated systems are being (often wirelessly) connected in the electric and automotive sectors. For most consumers, computers + code + communications = fun. But for security watchdogs, these same elements = trouble. And ultimately, cars and the grid will marry (and their coupling will produce precocious new security challenges) in a space industry calls V2G - meaning Vehicle-to-Grid.

Elinor links to an earlier CNET article of hers, "Hacking a Car", in which Stefan Savage of UC San Diego invokes history to make the connection:

If you look at PCs in the early 1990s, they had all kinds of latent software vulnerabilities. It didn't matter so much because PCs were at home and not connected to everything else. Then they were connected to the Internet and the latent vulnerabilities were exposed to outside attack. We see cars moving in much the same direction. There is a strong trend to provide pervasive connectivity in cars going forward. It would be good to start working on hardening these systems and providing defenses before it becomes a real problem.

And so it begins. I've begun research for a white paper on vehicle and V2G cyber security which I will try to have ready in early 2011, if not before 2010 is through. What's the motivation?  Here's how one gloomy CNET commenter cast it:

Someday the cyber terrorists will strike, locking everyone into their cars and disabling the engines, thus ensuring a swift and bloodless invasion of the United States. Then it will be up to the Amish to defend the country. We is doomed ..." 

I beg to disagree on three counts:

1. The Amish are tougher than you think.  See this short clip on Amish Rake Fighting
2. Bikers are even tougher than the Amish, and they won't be locked out
3. We're going to figure the security angles out up front and make sure cars remain as safe or safer than they are today -- though I'm not sure how safe that is

Photo credit: TechnaBob.com

Blazing EV and V2G Trails at the Texas State Fair 2010

You know we try to keep it calm here, but what an incredible experience I just had !!!  Just returned from a week in the Lone Star State speaking in Dallas and Houston, then back to Dallas again, the second time for the Electric Vehicle (EV) Showcase just around the corner from Big Tex. Man, was it worth the flight back to Love Field, and not just for the fried butter and fried beer.

On the first day I got to meet spokes-model (and true product expert) Alicia, then take the Volt (they had three on hand) for a spin on a curvy test track. I loved the way it looked, sounded and handled. A well-informed Chevrolet-rep named Brian gave me plenty of good details before during and after the drive, and I felt that many others like me will feel comfortable welcoming this car, that on most days will consume no gasoline, into their lives.

Now's here's a few details from the Executive Panel on day two to give you a broader look at what's going on behind the scenes to pave the way for this (plug-in hybrid) electric car and others like it. A panel moderated by Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) chairman Barry Smitherman included leadership from GM, IBM, Texas transmission and distribution utility Oncor, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and construction firm Beck. Here are some highlights of what they discussed:

• EPRI is working three main focus areas at present: 1) understanding consumer attitudes and expectations re: EV's, 2) early preparation of EV charging infrastructure, and 3) ensuring adequate utility infrastructure, particularly distribution transformers
• Texas is one of the initial wave of seven states for Volt deliveries in late 2010, starting in Austin then fanning out from there. In 2011, expect to see Volts available for sale in all 50 states
• Oncor sees two critical EV roll-out success factors: 1) the practice of off-peak (night-time) charging, and 2) early (and I do mean early) notice to utility co's when an individual is considering the purchase of an EV
• IBM is all about the information layer surrounding EVs and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) infrastructure and is looking at it 3 ways: 1) knowing how much energy from renewable sources is available at any time, 2) how utilities can have access to enough right info to know how much they need to spend on infrastructure, and 3) market and business-related IT that helps consumers as much as possible, particularly enabling ease of use, as well as providing national standards running from the charging points to the cars to the utilities themselves
• To help move 18 Gigawatts of clean wind energy, the moderator noted that Texas is spending $5 billion to run high voltage transmission lines hundreds of miles from windy west Texas to its cities
• Here's one I hadn't thought of before ... it's kind of subtle. According to EPRI, range anxiety is eased by the presence of charging stations outside the home and business, whether EV drivers use them or not
• The electricity required to go a full 40 miles in a Volt costs about $1.10
• Finally, the best part from national security security as well as environmental/climate points of view: most Americans drive 20 or fewer miles per day. The great majority drive fewer than 40 miles on work days as well as weekends. When these folks drive Volts, they are going to be using gasoline only rarely. Think about what that means when the number of Volts, Volt 2.0's and other EVs hit the roads in the millions and tens of millions

In keeping with this blog's security focus, are there going to be cyber security issues with these software-centric, wireless-enabled cars running on rapidly assembled IT and OT networks?  You bet, and we'll get to those soon. But for the time being, just wanted to note that it's a privilege to be alive at this moment, watching so many talented, creative, energetic and caring people pull out all the stops to help change our world in ways it sorely needs.

And I'll leave you with this nugget from a sign you pass upon entering the incredible Cowtown Diner in downtown Forth Worth:

     Never ask a man if he's from Texas.
     If he is, he's most likely already told you.
     If he's not, there's no use in embarrassing him

Photo: Volt dashboard power display

Smart Grid and V2G Weather Advisory: IBM Twitterstorm Coming

Many SGSB readers, though well versed and skilled in the ways of technology, might nevertheless say, "what the hell is a Twitterstorm?"

It's a fair question, and my simple answer is it's an online conversation and Q&A session between a bunch of folks, conducted 140 characters at a time. Maybe by haiku. This is no place for the verbose, and maybe because of that, it should be information dense and entertaining.

As the title of this post indicates, the central focus is on EVs, PHEVs and their interaction with today's grid and the emerging Smart Grid. The Smarter Planet folks at IBM are hosting it this coming Monday, September 20th, and you can see details HERE on how to join in on the fun.

Please make it if you can. No umbrella necessary.

Photo credit: LISgirl / Emily on Flickr.com

(BTW, for those of you unfamiliar with Twitter and Tweets, prior to this BTW note, this post consumed 651 characters not counting spaces. Twitter counts spaces. That's brevity.)

An Early Glimpse of V2G in Texas ... and a Volt Test Track

State fairs are big. Texas is big. So the Texas state fair is a monster (see BigTex.com). This year's version has something big in the electric vehicles/V2G space, with an Electric Vehicle Showcase (EVS) on Thurs and Friday, Sep 23 & 24. Here are a few of the details from the site:

Auto Show: Witness the evolution into the next generation vehicle. Visit with companies, agencies, and municipalities involved in the development of the electric vehicle and infrastructure grid in North Texas in the adjacent exhibit area.

Exhibitors: DFW Clean Cities, North Central Texas Council of Governments, Oncor, TXU Energy, Green Mountain Energy, Chevy, Electric Vehicle North Texas, US Green Building Council North Texas Chapter, and others.

Chevy Ride and Drive Test Track: A unique opportunity to drive an Chevy Volt, activate the charging cycle, and learn how electric vehicles will not only be high performance, cost effective and convenient, but will also help air quality in North Texas.

Oncor Mobile Experience Center (MEC): The MEC will be on-site to demonstrate smart meter technology and give attendees a real-time look at managing electric usage that includes electric vehicle charging at home.

Location: Chevy Ride and Drive Test Track Pennsylvania Ave. Entrance - Gate 1

Sponsors: GM, Texas electric utility Oncor, IBM ...

You can mingle with executives from these and other companies at a VIP Reception Thursday evening. Tickets available HERE. And for more info on the EVS, click HERE.  I'll be there and hope you can make it too.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars?

Q: I'll repeat the question - Do androids dream of electric cars?

A: I don't know, but I do.

With apologies to the Philip K Dick novel that inspired Blade Runner's spinners (air cars), while they may not fly, the propulsion systems of mainstream automobiles are about to undergo a major transformation. Over the next few years our everyday vehicles are poised to make the leap from Popular Science to Car and Driver. But the implications for critical electrical infrastructure go far beyond quiet motors and cleaner air; the grid itself will transform to accommodate the new loads, and grid IT systems will be upgraded to take advantage of some exciting new grid management capabilities Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) will enable.

To whit, see the North American ISOs and RTO's "Assessment of Plug-in Electric Vehicle Integration with ISO/RTO Systems." Below are a couple of security related snippets from this report, but the whole thing makes exciting reading for anyone interested in building and/or using the energy future.

Recommended standard communication interfaces:

• DNP3
• ICCP or IEC 60870-6/TASE.2
• XML/HTTPS

Recommended encryption standards:

• Secure ICCP
• Secure DNP3; compliant with IEC 62351-5 for Secure Authentication
• HTTPS with digital certificates

The authors make it plain that there's a ton of work to be done and that these are just a few baby steps when they note:

In addition to the identified communication interfaces and security requirements (including standards in development for smart grid and the NERC CIP 002-009 Standards), there are other integration requirements either not covered or partially covered by existing standards or developing standards.

Jack and I will be beating a drum ... and watching ... to make sure software security requirements get prioritized. But from complex systems and business process engineering perspectives, not to mention the attention paid to interstate coordination and market signals:

Because PEVs are mobile loads, and because aggregators will serve as liaisons between PEVs and ISO/RTOs, consistency across ISO/RTOs is a concern. As such, standard processes, including validation and settlement processes, and common communication protocols, including security requirements and communication interfaces, are desirable. Therefore, the project team recommends continued participation by the IRC in ongoing standards development, such as with SAE, NIST, NAESB, IEC and IEEE. The project team also recommends ISO/RTO investments in IT and communications infrastructure to meet the unique needs of PEV resources and aggregators and ultimately to enhance system reliability and enable participation of PEV resources in ISO/RTO markets.

It may not be a moon shot, but the scale of this project, especially when as we go from hundreds, to hundreds of thousands, to many millions of electric cars, sometimes seems similar. Suffice it to say, keeping it all secure, while getting all the other parts right, will be a grand challenge.

Photo Credit: Tesla Model S at Industry.Bnet.com

More Smart Grid Security Fun: V2G Hacking and Cyber Car Jacking

Thanks to Forrester analyst Usman Sindhu for zeroing in on risks emerging from new sources on the Smart Grid edge. Namely, those related to our increasingly (wirelessly) wired automobiles. At the IBM Innovate conference Jack and I are attending this week, cars came into focus in a way I don't think they have before. You see, this is a conference devoted almost fully to the art and science of software, and cars are made out of steel, right?

Well, for time being, yes. But that's not the end of the story. Besides steel, the typical car of 2010 has over 200 million lines of code. And though ferrying payloads to low earth orbit and docking with the International Space Station are beyond most 2010 models' capabilities, this is far more software than it takes to run the space shuttles. With dozens of applications and interfaces, not only is each one a highly complex system in itself, but if you think about it, each is an intelligent node in a system of systems. Improvements are now rolling out with increasing frequency to safety, navigation and propulsion systems, among others.

Jack has recently developed an auto-fixation, and as he said in a presentation earlier today, the ability to monitor, diagnose, and repair many vehicular problems without expensive, inconvenient trips to the repair shop is a major win for car makers and customers alike. The way he described it, it was almost like techno-nirvana. Until, that is, he mentioned the likely frailty of the software upon which all of this great new functionality depends.

As recent recalls have demonstrated, the cost of loving what software enables is realizing what happens when it goes wrong, whether by accident or from malicious intent. For a drill down, recommend you see this from the Economist on Cars and software bugs, as well as the Discovery Channel's "This Car runs on Code". Karl Koscher et al from the University of Washington spell it out in plain English in their recent paper: "Experimental Analysis of a Modern Automobile":

While the automotive industry has always considered safety a critical engineering concern (indeed, much of this new software has been introduced specifically to increase safety, e.g., Anti-lock Brake Systems) it is not clear whether vehicle manufacturers have anticipated in their designs the possibility of an adversary. Indeed, it seems likely that this increasing degree of computerized control also brings with it a corresponding array of potential threats.

Threats from bad guys are one thing; threats from poor coding, configuration errors and other unintentional companions of complexity are likely a bigger challenge in the near term. Nevertheless, could an attacker work his/her way through less-than-secure automotive communications networks to put drivers in harm's way or adversely impact a utility? Sounds exotic, but when Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) dreams start becoming reality, and electric cars draw their power from the grid while fulfilling important energy storage functions upon which we come to rely, this is one area we want to make sure doesn't get overlooked. In fact, just like in everything else, we'd recommend minimizing the drama and designing security in from the word go.

Photo Credit: So Fast it Hertz Blog

Calling all Energy Idealists, or: Where is Chris Davis?

For those of us immersed in energy matters in our day jobs, it may be hard to imagine that there's a virtual farm system out there where independent self-starters working in other fields imagine alternative uses of their energy. To whit, I wrote energy tech blogs for years before I had the good fortune of landing (via M&A) in a company that's staking its future on being an important part of our country's and the world's energy future. Now this has happened again, to a close friend of mine.

Not long ago my Air Force Academy classmate (1985) and Discovery Channel energy co-blogger Chris Davis wrote a post announcing my departure from Discovery, and the launch of two new blogs, one of which you're now reading. Well, the the tables are now turned and it's Chris who recently left his loyal readers wondering what became of him.

One of the last posts Chris did before wrapping up his Discovery Channel tech assignment was called "Visualizing the Electric Car 2015" and it gives you a feel for how forward-leaning his thinking is on renewables tech in general and Vehicles to Grid (V2G) in particular. Now, having transitioned from two decades of pure construction jobs to Dallas-based electric services co Facilities Solution Group (FSG), Chris is paid to pursue his passion.

Today he's active in North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) future transportation initiatives, bridging his expertise and experience in the building industry with what he knows about electric cars, Smart and microgrids, to accelerate that organizations' great work. We talk all the time, and he's one of the happiest, most fulfilled people I know.

For anyone visiting this blog from a vocation far removed from Smart Grid, energy management and/or other renewables-enabling pursuits, and wishing they were closer to the action, please take courage from our examples. If Chris and I could make the leap, so could anyone. And the energy future needs many more talented, passionate people to get involved and make it happen.

Photo credit: Chris Davis on 4 Pass Loop Route, Snowmass, Colorado. Click on it for much larger version

Electric Car Conundrum: V2G a Smart Grid Blessing or Curse?

Initially arriving in the US in low volume in late 2010, the addition of thousands and later millions of cars with 5-10 KW battery packs drawing power from (and sometimes giving back to) the grid is cast as both a positive and a negative, depending on your point of view.

On the positive side, as this article says, high performance, deep cycle lithium ion and lithium air batteries en mass may be the energy storage solution the industry has been searching for. Here's an example starring Duke:

Duke Energy committed to an electric vehicle future when it committed with the FPL Group to buy 10,000 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in the coming decade, as they upgrade their fleets. The energy storage in these vehicles could eliminate the need for peaking plants and enable the expanded use of renewable energy. Duke Energy’s electric vehicle future may save billions in future power plant investments.

Sounds good, but others worry, here, that local electrical infrastructure can barely handle the additional iPods and iPhones it's had to deal with lately. Adding clusters of electric cars charging at approximately the same time each evening might break the camel's back in many neighborhoods. According to Peter Darbee, the CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric:

A high concentration of plug-in electric vehicles poses a serious challenge to utilities. Plug-in electric cars could draw electricity equivalent the amount needed to run one home, or up to three homes in certain places. You can see if you have three or five electric cars arrive in a neighborhood, you're going to overload the local circuits, and that will lead to blackouts. So we see it as an opportunity but we also see it as a challenge of significant proportions.

We all know how neighbors like to mimic and compete with each other (have you seen the Halloween decorations next door !?). One electric car will beget two will beget ten or twenty. Scheduling software will help, but much depends on fast this goes, and how close to edge local circuit gear is at the outset.

Nissan Leaf photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Discovery's Top 10 V2G Round-up

If/when electric cars become an important smart grid storage or load balancing component, the security ramifications get ratcheted up. In the meantime, small pilots with a comparative handful of electric or hybrid-electric cars are hitting the street. See here for nice overview.

Photo: Discovery Communications