‘Smart Grid’ Requirements from NIST — How important is Physical Hardware Security?

At the beginning of February, the NIST released a draft of the Smart Grid Security Strategy and Requirements document in development. This product is aimed at defining the approach and trade-offs between flexibility, energy efficiency, and security in modern electrical grids. This is a high level committee approach and collaboration between the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and the National Institute of Standards (NIST). Authorship and participation has included Government and Industry.