768 research outputs found
LiSA: A Lightweight and Secure Authentication Mechanism for Smart Metering Infrastructure
Smart metering infrastructure (SMI) is the core component of the smart grid
(SG) which enables two-way communication between consumers and utility
companies to control, monitor, and manage the energy consumption data. Despite
their salient features, SMIs equipped with information and communication
technology are associated with new threats due to their dependency on public
communication networks. Therefore, the security of SMI communications raises
the need for robust authentication and key agreement primitives that can
satisfy the security requirements of the SG. Thus, in order to realize the
aforementioned issues, this paper introduces a lightweight and secure
authentication protocol, "LiSA", primarily to secure SMIs in SG setups. The
protocol employs Elliptic Curve Cryptography at its core to provide various
security features such as mutual authentication, anonymity, replay protection,
session key security, and resistance against various attacks. Precisely, LiSA
exploits the hardness of the Elliptic Curve Qu Vanstone (EVQV) certificate
mechanism along with Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman Problem (ECDHP) and Elliptic
Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem (ECDLP). Additionally, LiSA is designed to
provide the highest level of security relative to the existing schemes with
least computational and communicational overheads. For instance, LiSA incurred
barely 11.826 ms and 0.992 ms for executing different passes across the smart
meter and the service providers. Further, it required a total of 544 bits for
message transmission during each session.Comment: To appear in IEEE Globecom 201
Salsa20 based lightweight security scheme for smart meter communication in smart grid
The traditional power gird is altering dramatically to a smart power grid with the escalating development of information and communication technology (ICT). Among thousands of electronic devices connected to the grid through communication network, smart meter (SM) is the core networking device. The consolidation of ICT to the electronic devices centered on SM open loophole for the adversaries to launch cyber-attack. Therefore, for protecting the network from the adversaries it is required to design lightweight security mechanism for SM, as conventional cryptography schemes poses extensive computational cost, processing delay and overhead which is not suitable to be used in SM. In this paper, we have proposed a security mechanism consolidating elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and Salsa20 stream cipher algorithm to ensure security of the network as well as addressing the problem of energy efficiency and lightweight security solution. We have numerically analyzed the performance of our proposed scheme in case of energy efficiency and processing time which reveals that the suggested mechanism is suitable to be used in SM as it consumes less power and requires less processing time to encrypt or decrypt
Security Challenges in Smart-Grid Metering and Control Systems
The smart grid is a next-generation power system that is increasingly attracting the attention of government, industry, and academia. It is an upgraded electricity network that depends on two-way digital communications between supplier and consumer that in turn give support to intelligent metering and monitoring systems. Considering that energy utilities play an increasingly important role in our daily life, smart-grid technology introduces new security challenges that must be addressed. Deploying a smart grid without adequate security might result in serious consequences such as grid instability, utility fraud, and loss of user information and energy-consumption data. Due to the heterogeneous communication architecture of smart grids, it is quite a challenge to design sophisticated and robust security mechanisms that can be easily deployed to protect communications among different layers of the smart grid-infrastructure. In this article, we focus on the communication-security aspect of a smart-grid metering and control system from the perspective of cryptographic techniques, and we discuss different mechanisms to enhance cybersecurity of the emerging smart grid. We aim to provide a comprehensive vulnerability analysis as well as novel insights on the cybersecurity of a smart grid
Secure and energy-efficient multicast routing in smart grids
A smart grid is a power system that uses information and communication technology to operate, monitor, and control data flows between the power generating source and the end user. It aims at high efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of the electricity supply process that is provided by the utility centre and is distributed from generation stations to clients. To this end, energy-efficient multicast communication is an important requirement to serve a group of residents in a neighbourhood. However, the multicast routing introduces new challenges in terms of secure operation of the smart grid and user privacy. In this paper, after having analysed the security threats for multicast-enabled smart grids, we propose a novel multicast routing protocol that is both sufficiently secure and energy efficient.We also evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol by means of computer simulations, in terms of its energy-efficient operation
Efficient Key Management Schemes for Smart Grid
With the increasing digitization of different components of Smart Grid by incorporating smart(er) devices, there is an ongoing effort to deploy them for various applications. However, if these devices are compromised, they can reveal sensitive information from such systems. Therefore, securing them against cyber-attacks may represent the first step towards the protection of the critical infrastructure. Nevertheless, realization of the desirable security features such as confidentiality, integrity and authentication relies entirely on cryptographic keys that can be either symmetric or asymmetric. A major need, along with this, is to deal with managing these keys for a large number of devices in Smart Grid. While such key management can be easily addressed by transferring the existing protocols to Smart Grid domain, this is not an easy task, as one needs to deal with the limitations of the current communication infrastructures and resource-constrained devices in Smart Grid. In general, effective mechanisms for Smart Grid security must guarantee the security of the applications by managing (1) key revocation; and (2) key exchange. Moreover, such management should be provided without compromising the general performance of the Smart Grid applications and thus needs to incur minimal overhead to Smart Grid systems. This dissertation aims to fill this gap by proposing specialized key management techniques for resource and communication constrained Smart Grid environments. Specifically, motivated by the need of reducing the revocation management overhead, we first present a distributed public key revocation management scheme for Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) by utilizing distributed hash trees (DHTs). The basic idea is to enable sharing of the burden among smart meters to reduce the overall overhead. Second, we propose another revocation management scheme by utilizing cryptographic accumulators, which reduces the space requirements for revocation information significantly. Finally, we turn our attention to symmetric key exchange problem and propose a 0-Round Trip Time (RTT) message exchange scheme to minimize the message exchanges. This scheme enables a lightweight yet secure symmetric key-exchange between field devices and the control center in Smart Gird by utilizing a dynamic hash chain mechanism. The evaluation of the proposed approaches show that they significantly out-perform existing conventional approaches
Authentication techniques in smart grid: a systematic review
Smart Grid (SG) provides enhancement to existing grids with two-way communication between the utility, sensors, and consumers, by deploying smart sensors to monitor and manage power consumption. However due to the vulnerability of SG, secure component authenticity necessitates robust authentication approaches relative to limited resource availability (i.e. in terms of memory and computational power). SG communication entails optimum efficiency of authentication approaches to avoid any extraneous burden. This systematic review analyses 27 papers on SG authentication techniques and their effectiveness in mitigating certain attacks. This provides a basis for the design and use of optimized SG authentication approaches
Key Management Systems for Smart Grid Advanced Metering Infrastructure: A Survey
Smart Grids are evolving as the next generation power systems that involve
changes in the traditional ways of generation, transmission and distribution of
power. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is one of the key components in
smart grids. An AMI comprises of systems and networks, that collects and
analyzes data received from smart meters. In addition, AMI also provides
intelligent management of various power-related applications and services based
on the data collected from smart meters. Thus, AMI plays a significant role in
the smooth functioning of smart grids.
AMI is a privileged target for security attacks as it is made up of systems
that are highly vulnerable to such attacks. Providing security to AMI is
necessary as adversaries can cause potential damage against infrastructures and
privacy in smart grid. One of the most effective and challenging topic's
identified, is the Key Management System (KMS), for sustaining the security
concerns in AMI. Therefore, KMS seeks to be a promising research area for
future development of AMI. This survey work highlights the key security issues
of advanced metering infrastructures and focuses on how key management
techniques can be utilized for safeguarding AMI. First of all, we explore the
main features of advanced metering infrastructures and identify the
relationship between smart grid and AMI. Then, we introduce the security issues
and challenges of AMI. We also provide a classification of the existing works
in literature that deal with secure key management system in AMI. Finally, we
identify possible future research directions of KMS in AMI
Gelişmiş Ölçüm Altyapısı İçin Güvenlik Uygulamaları
Elektrik tüketimi ölçüm araçları, manuel olarak ölçüm
yapılan analog sayaçlardan, elektrik tüketimi ile ilgili
bilgileri toplayan ve elektrik dağıtım firmalarına ileten yeni
akıllı sayaçlara doğru evrilmektedir. Sayaç verisinin
okunmasını sağlayan tek yönlü otomatik sayaç okuma
sistemlerinin (AMR) çıkışıyla sayaçlar akıllı şebeke
yatırımlarının önemli bir kısmını oluşturmuştur. Otomatik
sayaç okuma sistemleri ilk uygulamalar için cazip olmasına
rağmen, çözülmesi gereken önemli bir husus olan talep tarafı
yönetiminin AMR ile sağlanamadığı fark edilmiştir.
AMR teknolojisinin kabiliyetlerinin tek yönlü sayaç verisi
okuma ile sınırlı olması nedeniyle, sayaçlardan toplanan
veriler üzerinden düzeltici önlemler alınmasına ve tüketicinin
enerjiyi daha verimli akıllı kullanmasına yönelik özeliklere
izin vermemektedir. Gelişmiş Ölçüm Altyapısı (AMI) ise akıllı
sayaçlar ve dağıtım şirketleri arasında çift yönlü iletişim
kurarak dağıtım şirketlerine sayaçlar üzerindeki
parametreleri dinamik olarak değiştirme imkanı tanır. Bu
nedenle, bu çalışmada AMI güvenliği üzerine
odaklanılacaktır.
Akıllı sayaç sistemlerinin yaygınlaşması ile birlikte, güvenlik
bu sistemlerin gerekli ve kaçınılmaz bir ihtiyacı haline
gelmektedir. Diğer taraftan, AMI sadece akıllı sayaçların
fiziksel olarak dağıtımı manasına gelmemekte, ayrıca sayaç
verilerinin yönetimi için gerekli olan karmaşık bir iletişim ağı
ve bilgi teknolojileri altyapısını da içermektedir. Dolayısıyla
güvenlik çözümlerini ele alırken geniş bir perspektifle
yaklaşmak gerekmektedir. Bu nedenle de, sistemin kritik
varlıkları belirlenmeli, tehditler iyi analiz edilmeli ve daha
sonra güvenlik gereksinimleri iyi tanımlanmış olmalıdır.
Bu çalışma AMI sisteminin temel güvenlik gereksinimleri,
tehditlere karşı sistem kısıtlarını düşünerek olası çözümleri
üzerine, şu anki güvenlik çözümlerini de resmederek, genel
bir bakış sunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, AMI sisteminin
güvenlik gereksinimleri analiz edilecek, kısıtlar belirlenecek
ve olası güvenlik tehditlerine karşı olası karşı önlemler
belirlenecektir.
Metering utilities have been replacing from analog meters
that are read manually with new, smart meters that gather
information about electricity consumption and transmit it
back to electric companies. The metering has been the
important part of the Smart Grid investments so far, with the
initial introduction of one-way automated meter reading
(AMR) systems to read meter data. Even though AMR
technology proved to be initially enticing, utility companies
have realized that AMR does not address demand-side
management which is the major issue they need to solve.
Since AMR’s capability is restricted to reading meter data
due to its one-way communication system, it does not let
utilities take corrective action based on the information
gathered from the meters and does not assist customers in
using energy intelligently. Advanced Metering Infrastructure
(AMI) creates a two-way communication network between
smart meters and utility systems and provides utilities the
ability to modify service-level parameters dynamically.
Therefore in this work we will also focus on AMI security
practices.
While smart metering systems are become widespread
security is going to be the one of its essential and inevitable
needs. On the other hand, AMI does not only mean the
physical deployment of smart meters, but it also includes
meter data management system which is a complicated
communication network and IT infrastructure. Hence a broad
perspective has to be adopted when security solutions are
considered. Therefore, assets of the system must be identified,
threats must be well analyzed and then security requirements
must be well defined.
This paper presents an overview on the main security
requirements of the AMI, on the threats possible solutions
considering the system constraints by picturing the current
security solutions. In this work, the security requirements for
AMI systems will be analyzed, constraints will be determined
and possible countermeasures against security threats will be
given
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