Why Cybersecurity in AMI Networks Demands Open Standards Wi-SUN AllianceWi-SUN Alliance Smart meters are transforming how utilities operate. But every connected endpoint is also a potential point of cyber-attack. Standardized, IT-grade security — the foundation of Wi-SUN Field Area Network (FAN) — is the only durable defense for advanced metering infrastructure. Connecting meters and making them intelligent has driven one of the most consequential operational shifts at utilities over the past decade and a half. Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) 1.0 has moved utilities from monthly truck rolls to continuous, granular visibility, and the operational gains are hard to overstate: A foundation has been laid for today’s advanced AMI 2.0 use cases. AMI 2.0 networks will place additional edge intelligence demands at the meter for waveform capture and analysis, load disaggregation, EV charging coordination, and distributed energy resource integration. However, the advantages of digitization create new challenges by expanding the cybersecurity attack surface of AMI systems. While much of a utility’s kit is locked within a substation’s physical perimeter or pole-mounted enclosures, an AMI network is the opposite. It’s distributed across an entire service territory, with every single endpoint physically accessible to anyone who can reach a meter base. There is no AMI perimeter to defend in the traditional sense, because the perimeter is everywhere. This accessibility changes the level of required security. Protecting each endpoint from rogue access is critical to protect the network, the system behind it, and the privacy of the consumption data tied to every customer. Compromising one meter cannot, under any circumstance, be allowed to compromise the network of meters or the services that ride on top of it. This is exactly how sophisticated attackers operate. They don’t break down the front door. They find the weakest entry point in the network, get in, and move