7,570 research outputs found
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
Using quantum key distribution for cryptographic purposes: a survey
The appealing feature of quantum key distribution (QKD), from a cryptographic
viewpoint, is the ability to prove the information-theoretic security (ITS) of
the established keys. As a key establishment primitive, QKD however does not
provide a standalone security service in its own: the secret keys established
by QKD are in general then used by a subsequent cryptographic applications for
which the requirements, the context of use and the security properties can
vary. It is therefore important, in the perspective of integrating QKD in
security infrastructures, to analyze how QKD can be combined with other
cryptographic primitives. The purpose of this survey article, which is mostly
centered on European research results, is to contribute to such an analysis. We
first review and compare the properties of the existing key establishment
techniques, QKD being one of them. We then study more specifically two generic
scenarios related to the practical use of QKD in cryptographic infrastructures:
1) using QKD as a key renewal technique for a symmetric cipher over a
point-to-point link; 2) using QKD in a network containing many users with the
objective of offering any-to-any key establishment service. We discuss the
constraints as well as the potential interest of using QKD in these contexts.
We finally give an overview of challenges relative to the development of QKD
technology that also constitute potential avenues for cryptographic research.Comment: Revised version of the SECOQC White Paper. Published in the special
issue on QKD of TCS, Theoretical Computer Science (2014), pp. 62-8
Game Theory for Secure Critical Interdependent Gas-Power-Water Infrastructure
A city's critical infrastructure such as gas, water, and power systems, are
largely interdependent since they share energy, computing, and communication
resources. This, in turn, makes it challenging to endow them with fool-proof
security solutions. In this paper, a unified model for interdependent
gas-power-water infrastructure is presented and the security of this model is
studied using a novel game-theoretic framework. In particular, a zero-sum
noncooperative game is formulated between a malicious attacker who seeks to
simultaneously alter the states of the gas-power-water critical infrastructure
to increase the power generation cost and a defender who allocates
communication resources over its attack detection filters in local areas to
monitor the infrastructure. At the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium of this
game, numerical results show that the expected power generation cost deviation
is 35\% lower than the one resulting from an equal allocation of resources over
the local filters. The results also show that, at equilibrium, the
interdependence of the power system on the natural gas and water systems can
motivate the attacker to target the states of the water and natural gas systems
to change the operational states of the power grid. Conversely, the defender
allocates a portion of its resources to the water and natural gas states of the
interdependent system to protect the grid from state deviations.Comment: 7 pages, in proceedings of Resilience Week 201
A Fault Analytic Method against HB+
The search for lightweight authentication protocols suitable for low-cost
RFID tags constitutes an active and challenging research area. In this context,
a family of protocols based on the LPN problem has been proposed: the so-called
HB-family. Despite the rich literature regarding the cryptanalysis of these
protocols, there are no published results about the impact of fault analysis
over them. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by presenting a fault
analytic method against a prominent member of the HB-family: HB+ protocol. We
demonstrate that the fault analysis model can lead to a flexible and effective
attack against HB-like protocols, posing a serious threat over them
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