Dariusz Kloza

Smart Grid Security

This book on smart grid security is meant for a broad audience from managers to technical experts. It highlights security challenges that are faced in the smart grid as we widely deploy it across the landscape. It starts with a brief overview of the smart grid and then discusses some of the reported attacks on the grid. It covers network threats, cyber physical threats, smart metering threats, as well as privacy issues in the smart grid. Along with the threats the book discusses the means to improve smart grid security and the standards that are emerging in the field. The second part of the book discusses the legal issues in smart grid implementations, particularly from a privacy (EU data protection) point of view.

The spatial bonds of WikiLeaks

Abstract This article analyses control of the Internet from a spatial perspective, on the intersection of social and political geography, and law. Inspired by the story of WikiLeaks and its leader Julian Assange, who is presently confined in a room of a diplomatic mission, this article examines such control through a spatial perspective, using the example of the paradoxical coexistence of whistle-blowing, aided by modern technology, and efforts to control the circulation of information on the Internet. Modern states can and do exercise their sovereignty normally upon a rather precisely delimited portion of land, while a variety of actions performed on the Internet remain rather hard to be associated with a single location on Earth. We use here a variety of spatial concepts, but in particular territory (and jurisdiction) and place as parameters for understanding the link between sovereignty (and, more precisely, control), resistance, and the Internet. This article demonstrates the importance of these spatial concepts for the policy and practice of Internet governance.

Assessing the European Approach to Privacy and Data Protection in Smart Grids. Lessons for Emerging Technologies

In this chapter, we would like to sketch societal challenges posed by smart grids, and in particular those related to surveillance, and – subsequently – to critically as- sess the approach of the European Union (EU) to addressing them. We first use the Dutch example of smart meters roll-out to illustrate that smart grids constitute a complex socio-technical phenomenon, and first and foremost, can be used as a sur- veillance tool (sections 2-3). Second, as the treat of abusive surveillance, to which we limit this chapter, is frequently framed in the language of privacy and personal data protection, we briefly introduce relevant legal frameworks of the EU (section 4) in order to demonstrate how smart grids interfere with these notions (section 5). Third, although the said frameworks solved some issues, they still left a number of open questions. Thus the EU has experimented with adding, on top of them, a “light” regulatory framework for personal data protection in smart grids, of which a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) can be seen as a core element. Having overviewed this development in section 6, we attempt to critically assess it in a sub- sequent section. We analyse the choice of regulatory instruments, their scope, focus, quality and effectiveness, among others. We conclude, in section 8, that the DPIA framework, chosen as the main means to solve the threat of abusive surveillance in smart grids, is rather a missed opportunity.

Legal Protection of Personal Data in Smart Grid and Smart Metering Systems from the European Perspective

Smart grids are slowly becoming the future of worldwide energy generation and distribution and they promise, among other things, numerous environmental, and energy efficiency benefits to society. At the same time, however, they are capable of severely invading the inviolability of the most privacy-sensitive place—the home. Therefore, these concerns must be duly taken into consideration while deploying smart grids. This chapter provides an overview, from the European legal perspective, smart grids challenges to the fundamental rights to privacy, personal data protection, and the way Europe has addressed them. It pays special attention to the relevant regulatory requirements and to the means available to properly address these challenges, especially the data protection impact assessment (DPIA). It concludes by a few observations on the efficiency of the European approach.