A tamper-resistant meter is an electricity meter built to make interference, bypass, or manipulation harder to perform without detection. It may use sealed enclosures, anti-opening sensors, secure firmware, event logs, and alerts for abnormal magnetic fields, reversed wiring, or missing cover status. The goal is not to make tampering impossible, but to create evidence and delay unnoticed fraud.
In cyber security, the term matters because modern utilities depend on meter data as trusted input for billing, load analysis, and grid operations. If attackers can alter readings or bypass a meter, they can steal power, hide illegal tapping, or corrupt operational visibility. Defenders use tamper-resistant meters with feeder monitoring, telemetry validation, and inspection workflows so discrepancies are flagged quickly. In cyber-physical environments, meter integrity is part of system integrity: if the data cannot be trusted, the control and accounting decisions built on it can fail.