A survey from nCircle shows that 90 percent of energy security professionals believe that more smart grid security standards are necessary. 

The survey of 104 energy and utility security professionals also showed that 75 percent of those professionals say that smart grid security has not been adequately addressed in smart grid deployment. Seventy-two percent of them believe that smart grid security standards are not moving fast enough to keep up with deployment. 

Sixty-one percent of survey-takers said that smart meter installations do not have adequate security controls to protect against data injections.

Forty-one percent believe that metering infrastructure, including transport networks, are the most vulnerable part of smart grid infrastructure in terms of cyber attacks. Twenty-nine percent answered smart meters, 20 percent said utility energy management systems and 10 percent answered energy management, such as phasor measurement systems.

  "Security has been addressed to varying degrees in many smart grid deployments, however it is going to be a challenge to keep pace with the constantly changing security landscape," said Patrick Miller, CEO of EnergySec, in an nCircle press release. "The analog and mechanical devices installed in most utilities were designed for a very different maintenance model than newer digital equipment being designed and installed today."

Elizabeth Ireland, vice president of marketing for nCircle noted in the press release, "It's pretty clear that information security professionals in the energy industry are uncomfortable with standards currently available for smart grid technology. Defining and implementing meaningful security standards is always a challenge but without standards, adoption of critical security controls across the smart grid industry is likely to be uneven at best."

Find out more about the survey and additional results here.