2020-01-04 - smart meters not so smart

some years ago i wrote about my concerns regarding wireless water meters (fun fact – it was exactly 7 years ago ;)). i recently came across two articles pointing out the very same problem… and a very simple way to exploit/monitor these devices with SDR (nearly) for free (RLT-SDR hardware is around 20EUR now):

• reading home power meters with RTL-SDR
• data mining home water usage; your water meter knows you a bit too well

long story short: TX signal is plaintext water/electricity usage + meter number. every1 can read it. the bad news is that these types of meters are already a commonplace and you cannot even opt-out. again ease of use for water/power supplier took precedence over users security/privacy. aka: “industry standard”…