Assessing and augmenting SCADA cyber security: a survey of techniques

SCADA systems monitor and control critical infrastructures of national importance such as power generation and distribution, water supply, transportation networks, and manufacturing facilities. The pervasiveness, miniaturisations and declining costs of internet connectivity have transformed these systems from strictly isolated to highly interconnected networks. The connectivity provides immense benefits such as reliability, scalability and remote connectivity, but at the same time exposes an otherwise isolated and secure system, to global cyber security threats. This inevitable transformation to highly connected systems thus necessitates effective security safeguards to be in place as any compromise or downtime of SCADA systems can have severe economic, safety and security ramifications. One way to ensure vital asset protection is to adopt a viewpoint similar to an attacker to determine weaknesses and loopholes in defences. Such mind sets help to identify and fix potential breaches before their exploitation. This paper surveys tools and techniques to uncover SCADA system vulnerabilities. A comprehensive review of the selected approaches is provided along with their applicability

Scenarios for the development of smart grids in the UK: literature review

Smart grids are expected to play a central role in any transition to a low-carbon energy future, and much research is currently underway on practically every area of smart grids. However, it is evident that even basic aspects such as theoretical and operational definitions, are yet to be agreed upon and be clearly defined. Some aspects (efficient management of supply, including intermittent supply, two-way communication between the producer and user of electricity, use of IT technology to respond to and manage demand, and ensuring safe and secure electricity distribution) are more commonly accepted than others (such as smart meters) in defining what comprises a smart grid. It is clear that smart grid developments enjoy political and financial support both at UK and EU levels, and from the majority of related industries. The reasons for this vary and include the hope that smart grids will facilitate the achievement of carbon reduction targets, create new employment opportunities, and reduce costs relevant to energy generation (fewer power stations) and distribution (fewer losses and better stability). However, smart grid development depends on additional factors, beyond the energy industry. These relate to issues of public acceptability of relevant technologies and associated risks (e.g. data safety, privacy, cyber security), pricing, competition, and regulation; implying the involvement of a wide range of players such as the industry, regulators and consumers. The above constitute a complex set of variables and actors, and interactions between them. In order to best explore ways of possible deployment of smart grids, the use of scenarios is most adequate, as they can incorporate several parameters and variables into a coherent storyline. Scenarios have been previously used in the context of smart grids, but have traditionally focused on factors such as economic growth or policy evolution. Important additional socio-technical aspects of smart grids emerge from the literature review in this report and therefore need to be incorporated in our scenarios. These can be grouped into four (interlinked) main categories: supply side aspects, demand side aspects, policy and regulation, and technical aspects.

Design of implicit routing protocols for large scale mobile wireless sensor networks

Strathclyde theses - ask staff. Thesis no. : T13189Most developments in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) routing protocols address static network scenarios. Schemes developed to manage mobility in other mobile networking implementations do not translate effectively to WSNs as the system design parameters are markedly different. Thus this research focuses on the issues of mobility and scalability in order to enable the full potential of WSNs to self-organise and co-operate and in so doing, meet the requirements of a rich mix of applications. In the goal of designing efficient, reliable routing protocols for large scale mobile WSN applications, this work lays the foundation by firstly presenting a strong case supported by extensive simulations, for the use of implicit connections. Then two novel implicit routing protocols - Virtual Grid Paging (VGP) and Virtual Zone Registration and Paging (VZRP) - that treat packet routing from node mobility and network scalability viewpoints are designed and analysed. Implicit routing exploits the connection availability and diversity in the underlying network to provide benefits such as fault tolerance, overhead control and improvement in QoS (Quality of Service) such as delay. Analysis and simulation results show that the proposed protocols guarantee significant improvement, delivering a more reliable, more efficient and better network performance compared with alternatives.Most developments in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) routing protocols address static network scenarios. Schemes developed to manage mobility in other mobile networking implementations do not translate effectively to WSNs as the system design parameters are markedly different. Thus this research focuses on the issues of mobility and scalability in order to enable the full potential of WSNs to self-organise and co-operate and in so doing, meet the requirements of a rich mix of applications. In the goal of designing efficient, reliable routing protocols for large scale mobile WSN applications, this work lays the foundation by firstly presenting a strong case supported by extensive simulations, for the use of implicit connections. Then two novel implicit routing protocols - Virtual Grid Paging (VGP) and Virtual Zone Registration and Paging (VZRP) - that treat packet routing from node mobility and network scalability viewpoints are designed and analysed. Implicit routing exploits the connection availability and diversity in the underlying network to provide benefits such as fault tolerance, overhead control and improvement in QoS (Quality of Service) such as delay. Analysis and simulation results show that the proposed protocols guarantee significant improvement, delivering a more reliable, more efficient and better network performance compared with alternatives

Computing Approximate Solutions to the Art Gallery Problem and Watchman Route Problem by Means of Photon Mapping

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be partitioned component sensor nodes (SNs) who are meant to operate and sense information arriving from multiple spectra in their environment. Determining where to place a single SN or multiple SNs such that the amount of information gained is maximized while the number of SNs used to gain that information is minimized is an instance of solving the art gallery problem (AGP). In order to solve the AGP, we present the Sensor Placement Optimization via Queries (SPOQ) algorithm that uses level sets populated by queries to a photon map in order to find observation points that sense as many photons as possible. Since we are using photon mapping as our means of modeling how information is conveyed, SPOQ can then take into account static or dynamic environmental conditions and can use exploratory or precomputed sensing. Unmanned vehicles can be designated more generally as UxVs where “x” indicates the environment they are expected to operate – either in the air, on the ground, underwater or on the water’s surface. Determining how to plan an optimal route by a single UxV or multiple UxVs operating in their environment such that the amount of information gained is maximized while the cost of gaining that information is minimized is an instance of solving the watchman route problem (WRP). In order to solve the WRP, we present the Photon-mapping-Informed active-Contour Route Designator (PICRD) algorithm. PICRD heuristically solves the WRP by utilizing SPOQ’s AGP-solving vertices and connecting them with the high visibility vertices provided by a photon-mapping informed Chan-Vese segmentation mesh using a shortest-route path-finding algorithm. Since we are using photon-mapping as our foundation for determining sensor coverage by the PICRD algorithm, we can then take into account the behavior of photons as they propagate through the various environmental conditions that might be encountered by a single or multiple UxVs