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

Establishing a Smart Grid Node Architecture and Demonstrator in an Office Environment using the SOA Approach

Abstract—The introduction of low-cost renewable energy production, e.g., by photovoltaic, has turned classical grid nodes like homes and offices in prosumers, taking an active role in smart energy systems by merging home-automation and energy production functionality. However, to become a self-balancing element of a stable smart grid, supporting the energy-aware cooperative production, storage, and consumption, a scalable software is needed tailored for smart micro grids and their integration in large-scale systems. In the following, the implementation of a layered SOA-based distributed architecture is presented, that provides open interfaces simplifying the plugand-play of hardware and software components, allows the runtime adaption of its reactive behavior to incrementally enhance its intelligence, and uses an interaction paradigm supporting an open and distributed form of cooperation