The”hacker” claims and it sounds like demo’ed messing around wit hSilver Springs Networks equipment. Embedded systems as a whole have a ways to go for security. But new stuff (such as SmartGrid) which, in theory have new arch. Should know better.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/a-hacker-says-smart-grid-can-be-penetrated/