The economic impact of electrical meter tampering within Western Cape municipalities

Electricity access is fundamental for satisfying elementary human needs, raising living standards, preserving satisfactory human health, assisting in the relief of poverty and helping expedite sustainable development. Furthermore, access to electricity helps to uplift communities and empower businesses, contributing to an all-round positive environment ultimately leading to the development of a country. Worldwide, electricity is generated at identified areas and by specific entities such as Eskom in South Africa, Nampower in Namibia and LEC in Lesotho. Electricity generation, transmission, and distribution are a business just like any other business and its main goals are to service the needs of its customers as well as to make a profit and look after the interests of the shareholders. Although electricity must be made available for use by all the citizens and businesses in a country, it is not a free service and must be paid for. An electricity meter is used to measure the amount of electricity used and bill the consumer accordingly. Tampering with any electrical meters in order to avoid paying for electricity is illegal and a criminal offense. Electrical meter tampering and the economic impact it has on a utility is a massive overall problem. An initial review of the problem revealed that there are studies and published statistics for electrical meter tampering in South Africa on a national level, but that there is a lack of focus and results on a regional level. The purpose of this study is to assist regional municipalities and determine how to challenge electricity meter tampering and therefore influence the economic effect it might have on such a municipality. This study looks at investigating regional municipalities with a specific focus on municipalities situated within the Western Cape. To initiate this study, secondary data was collected from academic sources and presented in the form of a literature review. The literature review addresses research questions and objectives around the background, nature, and extent of managing electricity, electrical meters, the importance of solving the problem and the potential causes of electrical meter tampering. An interpretive research philosophy was followed and primary data was gathered through a qualitative study by interviewing eleven (11)participants from ten (10)local Western Cape Municipalities. Furthermore, it was identified that the two qualitative approaches best suited to this research was a case study and grounded theory. In order to analyse the primary data gathered, a sophisticated software programme called ATLAS.ti was used to identify themes and codes emanating from the data. The analysis of the primary data was presented in the form of columns, bar and pie charts and the key findings interpreted with reference to the secondary data gathered earlier in the study.The treatise was concluded with recommendations to municipal managers of how to challenge electrical meter tampering and what economic impact meter tampering has on their municipalities. It was left to the municipal manager’s discretion to decide if they want to share the results of the study with their senior and middle managers who acted as participants in the study

The Limits and Possibilities of Prepaid Water in Urban Africa: Lessons From the Field

This study explores the potential of prepaid meters for serving urban poor communities. It examines eight African countries from the perspective of their communities, as well as from water sector bodies, governments, and other investors

GNSS Related Threats to Power Grid Applications

As power grid environments are moving towards the smart grid vision of the future, the traditional schemes for power grid protection and control are making way for new applications. The advancements in this field have made the requirements for power grid’s time synchronization accuracy and precision considerably more demanding. So far, the signals provided by Global Navigation Satellite Systems have generally addressed the need for highly accurate and stable reference time in power grid applications. These signals however are highly susceptible to tampering as they are being transmitted. Since electrical power transmission and distribution are critical functions for any modern society, the risks and impacts affiliated with satellite-based time synchronization in power grids ought to be examined. This thesis aims to address the matter. The objective is to examine how Global Navigation Satellite Systems are utilized in the power grids, how different attacks would potentially be carried out by employing interference and disturbance to GNSS signals and receivers and how the potential threats can be mitigated. A major part of the research is done through literature review, and the core concepts and different implementations of Global Navigation Satellite Systems are firstly introduced. The literature review also involves the introduction of different power grid components and subsystems, that utilize Global Positioning System for time synchronization. Threat modeling techniques traditionally practiced in software development are applied to power grid components and subsystems to gain insight about the possible threats and their impacts. The threats recognized through this process are evaluated and potential techniques for mitigating the most notable threats are presented.Sähköverkot ovat siirtymässä kohti tulevaisuuden älykkäitä sähköverkkoja ja perinteiset sähköverkon suojaus- ja ohjausmenetelmät tekevät tilaa uusille sovelluksille. Alan kehitys on tehnyt aikasynkronoinnin tarkkuusvaatimuksista huomattavasti aikaisempaa vaativampia. Tarkka aikareferenssi sähköverkoissa on tähän saakka saavutettu satelliittinavigointijärjestelmien tarjoamien signaalien avulla. Nämä signaalit ovat kuitenkin erittäin alttiita erilaisille hyökkäyksille. Sähkönjakelujärjestelmät ovat kriittinen osa nykyaikaista yhteiskuntaa ja riskejä sekä seuraamuksia, jotka liittyvät satelliittipohjaisten aikasynkronointimenetelmien hyödyntämiseen sähköverkoissa, tulisi tarkastella. Tämä tutkielma pyrkii vastaamaan tähän tarpeeseen. Päämääränä on selvittää, miten satelliittinavigointijärjestelmiä hyödynnetään sähköverkoissa, kuinka erilaisia hyökkäyksiä voidaan toteuttaa satelliittisignaaleja häiritsemällä ja satelliittisignaalivastaanottimia harhauttamalla ja kuinka näiden muodostamia uhkia voidaan lieventää. Valtaosa tästä tutkimuksesta on toteutettu kirjallisuuskatselmoinnin pohjalta. Työ kattaa satelliittinavigointijärjestelmien perusteet ja esittelee erilaisia tapoja, kuinka satelliittisignaaleja hyödynnetään sähköverkoissa erityisesti aikasynkronoinnin näkökulmasta. Työssä hyödynnettiin perinteisesti ohjelmistokehityksessä käytettyjä uhkamallinnusmenetelmiä mahdollisten uhkien ja seurausten analysointiin. Lopputuloksena esitellään riskiarviot uhkamallinnuksen pohjalta tunnistetuista uhkista, sekä esitellään erilaisia menettelytapoja uhkien lieventämiseksi

A Test Environment for Wireless Hacking in Domestic IoT Scenarios

Security is gaining importance in the daily life of every citizen. The advent of Internet of Things devices in our lives is changing our conception of being connected through a single device to a multiple connection in which the centre of connection is becoming the devices themselves. This conveys the attack vector for a potential attacker is exponentially increased. This paper presents how the concatenation of several attacks on communication protocols (WiFi, Bluetooth LE, GPS, 433 Mhz and NFC) can lead to undesired situations in a domestic environment. A comprehensive analysis of the protocols with the identification of their weaknesses is provided. Some relevant aspects of the whole attacking procedure have been presented to provide some relevant tips and countermeasures.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the SecureEDGE project (PID2019-110565RB-I00), and by the by the Andalusian FEDER 2014-2020 Program through the SAVE project (PY18-3724). // Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. // Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU

Security technology, urban prototyping, and the politics of failure

In response to broader political and corporate tendencies towards ‘techno-solutionism’, critical studies of security technology highlight the threat that security technologies pose to civil rights and democratic accountability. This article argues for a slightly different perspective: rather than taking claims of technological efficacy at face value, it explores the multiple ways in which security-related technology so frequently fails to deliver its – confidently anticipated or feared – effects. A focus on sociotechnical failure can offer more comprehensive, on-the-ground understanding of the technopolitics of security. We suggest that these politics may lie precisely in the blurring of concepts of failure and success, as ‘prototyping’ and experimentation become an increasingly powerful logic of urban governance. This argument is developed through an analysis of security interventions in Jamaica, a context characterized by high levels of violent crime. The article focuses on three technologies that have been adapted to security-related purposes: a communication channel connecting police and private security guards, a public–private CCTV network, and a smart electricity grid. Drawing on approaches from science and technology studies, the article adopts a process-oriented approach, attending to both the discourses surrounding the introduction of these technologies and their everyday interactions with their social and built environments

Enhanching Security in the Future Cyber Physical Systems

Cyber Physical System (CPS) is a system where cyber and physical components work in a complex co-ordination to provide better performance. By exploiting the communication infrastructure among the sensors, actuators, and control systems, attackers may compromise the security of a CPS. In this dissertation, security measures for different types of attacks/ faults in two CPSs, water supply system (WSS) and smart grid system, are presented. In this context, I also present my study on energy management in Smart Grid. The techniques for detecting attacks/faults in both WSS and Smart grid system adopt Kalman Filter (KF) and χ2 detector. The χ2 -detector can detect myriad of system fault- s/attacks such as Denial of Service (DoS) attack, short term and long term random attacks. However, the study shows that the χ2 -detector is unable to detect the intelligent False Data Injection attack (FDI). To overcome this limitation, I present a Euclidean detector for smart grid which can effectively detect such injection attacks. Along with detecting attack/faults I also present the isolation of the attacked/faulty nodes for smart grid. For isolation the Gen- eralized Observer Scheme (GOS) implementing Kalman Filter is used. As GOS is effective in isolating attacks/faults on a single sensor, it is unable to isolate simultaneous attacks/faults on multiple sensors. To address this issue, an Iterative Observer Scheme (IOS) is presented which is able to detect attack on multiple sensors. Since network is an integral part of the future CPSs, I also present a scheme for pre- serving privacy in the future Internet architecture, namely MobilityFirst architecture. The proposed scheme, called Anonymity in MobilityFirst (AMF), utilizes the three-tiered ap- proach to effectively exploit the inherent properties of MF Network such as Globally Unique Flat Identifier (GUID) and Global Name Resolution Service (GNRS) to provide anonymity to the users. While employing new proposed schemes in exchanging of keys between different tiers of routers to alleviate trust issues, the proposed scheme uses multiple routers in each tier to avoid collaboration amongst the routers in the three tiers to expose the end users

Renewable Energy and Other Strategies for Mitigating the Energy Crisis in Nepal

The overarching aim of this research is to carefully review Nepal’s energy scenario from the technical and socio-economic perspective in order to determine the optimal near-term as well as long-term strategies to overcome the energy crisis. Renewable energy sources are pivotal to this research due to the abundant availability of these resources in Nepal. The long-term energy supply and demand forecast for Nepal over the next 30 years was obtained in Long-Range Energy Planning (LEAP) software. Other quantitative results were obtained using software packages, including PVsyst, Meteo, and HOMER. In many other cases, energy data collected from open literature,government and regulator reports were analysed. There are also several case studies considered in the thesis. The PV rooftop energy systems for Nepalese town and rural households can minimise the energy trade deficit with neighbouring India, enhance energy security, and improve local employment opportunities as well as improve utilisation of the local resources. In particular, a 3kW PV rooftop system was designed and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink, and the corresponding PV and IV curves were obtained, including analysing the effects of environmental temperature and solar irradiation. The design was followed by techno-economic feasibility, assuming typical households inthe Kathmandu valley. The study outcome is that the PV system for a residential building in Kathmandu is economically feasible, and it can provide nearly 6,000 kWh/year of energy. The potential energy efficiency improvements in the cement industry were studied using data collected directly at one of the major cement plants in Nepal. The cement production processes are very energy-intensive, and they have not changed for years. Since the energy costs in Nepal are abnormally high, they represent over half of the cement production costs. It creates substantial pressure to conserve energy and materials while reducing the carbon footprint. Other important factors that must be considered apart from energy issues are production efficiency and sustainability, and how to exploit innovations and encourage investments. The chaotic energy situation in Nepal is exacerbated by rather significant electricity distribution losses and frequent cases of electricity theft. These two issues are significant contributors to a widening gap between energy supply and demand. iv. Other such issues include overpriced and delayed hydropower projects, insufficient and outdated infrastructure, lack of energy conservation, deficient energy management, inadequately low efficiency of equipment, unsustainable energy pricing strategies, indecisive energy market regulations, reliance on energy imports, and especially inadequate exploitation of vast amounts of renewable energy resources. All these factors are also adversely affecting the geopolitical, environmental, and socioeconomic situation in Nepal. The developments in the energy sector in Nepal are also discussed in light of the relevant energy policies which have been adopted by the government over the past two decades. The results presented in the thesis can be used by the government regulators and energy policy planners, and possibly also by the public and private energy companies. It should be noted that the findings and observations in the thesis are also applicable to other countries with a similar development status and geography as Nepal

Securing CAN-Based Cyber-Physical Systems

With the exponential growth of cyber-physical systems (CPSs), new security challenges have emerged. Various vulnerabilities, threats, attacks, and controls have been introduced for the new generation of CPS. However, there lacks a systematic review of the CPS security literature. In particular, the heterogeneity of CPS components and the diversity of CPS systems have made it difficult to study the problem with one generalized model. As the first component of this dissertation, existing research on CPS security is studied and systematized under a unified framework. Smart cars, as a CPS application, were further explored under the proposed framework and new attacks are identified and addressed. The Control Area Network (CAN bus) is a prevalent serial communication protocol adopted in industrial CPS, especially in small and large vehicles, ships, planes, and even in drones, radar systems, and submarines. Unfortunately, the CAN bus was designed without any security considerations. We then propose and demonstrate a stealthy targeted Denial of Service (DoS) attack against CAN. Experimentation shows that the attack is effective and superior to attacks of the same category due to its stealthiness and ability to avoid detection from current countermeasures. Two controls are proposed to defend against various spoofing and DoS attacks on CAN. The first one aims to minimize the attack using a mechanism called ID-Hopping so that CAN arbitration IDs are randomized so an attacker would not be able to target them. ID-Hopping raises the bar for attackers by randomizing the expected patterns in a CAN network. Such randomization hinders an attacker’s ability to launch targeted DoS attacks. Based on the evaluation on the testbed, the randomization mechanism, ID-Hopping, holds a promising solution for targeted DoS, and reverse engineering CAN IDs, and which CAN networks are most vulnerable. The second countermeasure is a novel CAN firewall that aims to prevent an attacker from launching a plethora of nontraditional attacks on CAN that existing solutions do not adequately address. The firewall is placed between a potential attacker’s node and the rest of the CAN bus. Traffic is controlled bi-directionally between the main bus and the attacker’s side so that only benign traffic can pass to the main bus. This ensures that an attacker cannot arbitrarily inject malicious traffic into the main bus. Demonstration and evaluation of the attack and firewall were conducted by a bit-level analysis, i.e., “Bit banging”, of CAN’s traffic. Results show that the firewall successfully prevents the stealthy targeted DoS attack, as well as, other recent attacks. To evaluate the proposed attack and firewall, a testbed was built that consisted of BeagleBone Black and STM32 Nucleo- 144 microcontrollers to simulate real CAN traffic. Finally, a design of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) was proposed to complement the firewall. It utilized the proposed firewall to add situational awareness capabilities to the bus’s security posture and detect and react to attacks that might bypass the firewall based on certain rules