Expert comments on cyberthreats to smart grids and intelligent buildings

While intelligent building design and the use of smart grids are seen as the way forward for energy efficiency and facilities management, the potential risk of malicious attacks on these systems is frequently overlooked, according to David Fisk of the Laing O’Rourke Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation at Imperial College London.

“Although overt security in the form of ‘intelligent’ entry control and fire evacuation systems has been an intrinsic part of modern services design, the integrity of the control system itself has not until recently been discussed,” Fisk wrote in Intelligent Buildings International journal.

While designers of intelligent buildings might argue that there have been no significant attacks on building management system (BMS) technology, Fisk wrote, “This is not a case of a perfect safety record being able to engender confidence that no such attack will happen.”

Fisk uses a hypothetical scenario involving the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems of a ‘super-casino’ to urge the building systems design community to rethink traditional security strategies.

“If intelligent buildings are the future, then so too are cyberthreats to building services,” Fisk concludes. “The correct strategy is to draw up a ‘plan for the worst’ rather than rely on assertions by software and hardware providers.

“An identified minimum level of service and hardware hardwired that can provide it is thus essential. The very existence of such a plan may not make the reward of a targeted attack worthwhile.”

The full article is available on open access here.