Multi-Layer Cyber-Physical Security and Resilience for Smart Grid

The smart grid is a large-scale complex system that integrates communication technologies with the physical layer operation of the energy systems. Security and resilience mechanisms by design are important to provide guarantee operations for the system. This chapter provides a layered perspective of the smart grid security and discusses game and decision theory as a tool to model the interactions among system components and the interaction between attackers and the system. We discuss game-theoretic applications and challenges in the design of cross-layer robust and resilient controller, secure network routing protocol at the data communication and networking layers, and the challenges of the information security at the management layer of the grid. The chapter will discuss the future directions of using game-theoretic tools in addressing multi-layer security issues in the smart grid.Comment: 16 page

A Game Theoretic Approach to Modelling Jamming Attacks in Delay Tolerant Networks

Cyberspace plays a prominent role in our social, economic and civic welfare and cyber security issues are of paramount importance today. Growing reliance of the intertwined military and civilian applications on wireless computer networks makes these networks highly vulnerable to attacks of which jamming attacks are a vital and exigent problem. In this paper, we study defence against jamming attacks as game in a delay tolerant network, with two adversarial players: the jammer playing against the transmitter. The transmitters seek to choose an optimal time to schedule his transmission securely, so as to maximize the probability of successful delivery before his session expires, while these transmissions are subject to inference from the jammer, who attempts to minimize this probability . We design strategies for the transmitters that offset transmission period based inference of network traffic by the jammer. We model these interactions and decisions as a game and use simulation as a tool to evaluate the games. Probability distribution functions over finite set of strategies are proposed to compute the expected payoff of both the players. Simulation results are used to evaluate the expected payoff along with the resulting equilibrium in cases where players are biased and unbiased. These results are used to strategically decide on the optimal time for both the players, and evaluate the efficiency of the strategies used by the transmitters against jammer attacks.

Can local communities in Zimbabwe be trusted with wildlife management?: Evidence from contingent valuation of elephants

If local communities living adjacent to the elephant see it as a burden, then they cannot be trusted to be its stewards. To assess their valuation of it, a CVM study was conducted for one CAMPFIRE district in Zimbabwe. Respondents were classified according to their preferences over the elephant. The median WTP for the preservation of 200 elephants is ZW$260 (US$4.73) for respondents who considered the elephant a public good while the same statistic is ZW$137 (US$2.49) for those favouring its translocation. The preservation of 200 elephants yields an annual net worth of ZW$10,828 (US$196) to CAMPFIRE households. However, the majority of households (62%) do not support elephant preservation. This is one argument against devolution of elephant conservation to local communities. Adequate economic incentives must be extended to local communities if their majority is to partake in sound elephant conservation. External transfers constitute one way of providing additional economic incentives.Campfire, contingent valuation, double bounded spike model, elephant, Zimbabwe

Classifying resilience approaches for protecting smart grids against cyber threats

Smart grids (SG) draw the attention of cyber attackers due to their vulnerabilities, which are caused by the usage of heterogeneous communication technologies and their distributed nature. While preventing or detecting cyber attacks is a well-studied field of research, making SG more resilient against such threats is a challenging task. This paper provides a classification of the proposed cyber resilience methods against cyber attacks for SG. This classification includes a set of studies that propose cyber-resilient approaches to protect SG and related cyber-physical systems against unforeseen anomalies or deliberate attacks. Each study is briefly analyzed and is associated with the proper cyber resilience technique which is given by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Special Publication 800-160. These techniques are also linked to the different states of the typical resilience curve. Consequently, this paper highlights the most critical challenges for achieving cyber resilience, reveals significant cyber resilience aspects that have not been sufficiently considered yet and, finally, proposes scientific areas that should be further researched in order to enhance the cyber resilience of SG.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA