For more than ten years, NARUC has addressed critical issues arising from advanced metering and smart grid deployments, including ratemaking, reliability, cyber security, consumer education, consumer protection, and privacy.

WHITEHOUSE: Energy and Environment Latest News | The White House

Other infrastructure components have been compromised in the past, including a case in which hackers planted potentially disruptive software programs in the U.S. electrical grid, according to current and former national-security officials.

WSJ: Hackers Penetrate Nasdaq's Computers

For more on specific security policies, read the FERC Smart Grid Policy statement, here (PDF).

FORBES: FERC Chair Wellinghoff on Why a 'Smart Grid' is Stupid About Cyber-Security

Having regulators, as a condition of approving smart grid investments, require utilities to deploy smart grid technologies in a manner consistent with reasonable and effective cyber and physical security best practices.

WHITEHOUSE: Energy and Environment Latest News | The White House

One of the real risks posed by smart meters is security, writes Christine Hertzog in her blog, The Smart Grid Library.

FORBES: The Truth About Risks, Benefits of the Smart Grid

For all the very real advantages of a smart grid, however, its number one vulnerability has still not been adequately addressed: cyber-security.

FORBES: FERC Chair Wellinghoff on Why a 'Smart Grid' is Stupid About Cyber-Security

The problem that forward thinkers on cyber security like Kendall, Alexander, and former deputy defense secretary Bill Lynn face is that the existing information grid and acquisition system have spawned constituencies with deep roots in the political system.

FORBES: Pentagon Tech Chief Points To Big Problem In Protecting Networks