Re: Maybe..
"(I await the botnet running on (mandated) "smart" energy meters with interest...)"
Here in France there is a somewhat hated new smart meter called "Linky". It is not legal to refuse to accept it, and if you persist then EDF will back down and just bill €€€€s call out charge for each time the meter is read.
I don't know how it talks to the mothership, but it'll be interesting if they think it is going to talk to my wifi. I can use my crappy IP camera as a good reason to say "either I audit the source code of this thing or you find some other method of communication".
As an aside - a newspaper article quotes EDF as saying that the Linky does not catch fire. It's just incorrectly installed. Wait, remind me, exactly who installs meters? I also await with interest the first time this thing gets hit with lightning. We have overhead three phase to the house. It gets directly hit once every two or three years, and proximity hit several times a year. Our old meter predates me but takes this stuff in its stride. Is it optimistic or just silly to expect the Linky to be as reliable? What's worse - if there is a really bad storm, I can throw the breakers and turn everything off. Well, you can't take the meter out of circuit. Hmm.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
