McAfee to sign MOU to protect smart meter data

McAfee says it will sign an informal agreement with a major European utility company to establish a set of privacy and security standards before the wider rollout of smart meters.

The standards will aim to help protect consumer data generated by smart meters in homes.

It comes ahead of a Europe-wide plan to install smart meters in the majority of homes by 2020.

Smart meters collect updates every 15 minutes which could give energy firms access to huge reams of data on usage and even what models of device their using.

In the case of connected TVs, they could even see what consumers are watching.

McAfee CTO Raj Samani warned that such data could be sold off by companies.

Samani told PC Pro McAfee would shortly sign a memorandum of understanding with "one of the biggest" energy companies in Europe.

Such an agreement wiould not be legally binding and only indicated a willingness for a formal deal to be inked later.

He added that the firm had developed template guidelines on data protection for connected homes and was in the process of proof-of-concept work with "multiple" utility companies.

"Privacy one of the biggest barriers to adoption for smart grids, but they have to happen," Samani added.