The new meters send electricity and water usage reports via wireless network, but in Santa Clara, a city of 118, 000 in the heart of the Silicon Valley, they also have an unusual separate channel that provides free, outdoor Internet.
This attack can put corporations at risk because telecommuters often fail to regularly update their antivirus software, said Sal Viveros, group marketing manager for total virus defense at Network Associates Inc.(NAI) in Santa Clara, Calif.