Evaluation of Cybersecurity Threats on Smart Metering System

Smart metering has emerged as the next-generation of energy distribution, consumption, and monitoring systems via the convergence of power engineering and information and communication technology (ICT) integration otherwise known as smart grid systems. While the innovation is advancing the future power generation, distribution, consumption monitoring and information delivery, the success of the platform is positively correlated to the thriving integration of technologies upon which the system is built. Nonetheless, the rising trend of cybersecurity attacks on cyber infrastructure and its dependent systems coupled with the system’s inherent vulnerabilities present a source of concern not only to the vendors but also the consumers. These security concerns need to be addressed in order to increase consumer confidence so as to ensure greatest adoption and success of smart metering. In this paper, we present a functional communication architecture of the smart metering system. Following that, we demonstrate and discuss the taxonomy of smart metering common vulnerabilities exposure, upon which sophisticated threats can capitalize. We then introduce countermeasure techniques, whose integration is considered pivotal for achieving security protection against existing and future sophisticated attacks on smart metering systems

Comparison of smart grid technologies and progress in the USA and Europe

\u3cp\u3eThis work discusses historical and technical events in USA and Europe over the last few years that are aimed at modernizing the electric power grid. The US federal government has ratified the “Smart Grid Initiative” as the official policy for modernizing the electricity grid including unprecedented provisions for timely information and control options to consumers and deployment of “smart” technologies. European countries are unified in researching and developing related technologies through various structures supported by the European Union. This chapter presents the development of smart grids and an analysis of the methodologies, milestones and expected evolutions of grid technologies that will transform society in the near future.\u3c/p\u3

An Implementation of a High Assurance Smart Meter Using Protected Module Architectures

Part 2: Secure Hardware SystemsInternational audienceDue to ongoing changes in the power grid towards decentralised and highly volatile energy production, smart electricity meters are required to provide fine-grained measurement and timely remote access to consumption and production data. This enables flexible tariffing and dynamic load optimisation. As the power grid forms part of the critical infrastructure of our society, increasing the resilience of the grid’s software components against failures and attacks is vitally important.In this paper we explore the use of Protected Module Architectures (PMAs) to securely implement and deploy software for smart electricity meters. Outlining security challenges and an architectural solution in the light of security features provided by PMAs, we evaluate a proof-of-concept implementation of a security-focused smart metering scenario. Our implementation is based on Sancus, an embedded PMA for low-power microcontrollers. The evaluation of our prototype provides strong indication for the feasibility of implementing a PMA-based high assurance smart meter with a very small software Trusted Computing Base, which would be suitable for security certification and formal verification