Automated Cybersecurity Tester for IEC61850-Based Digital Substations

Abstract

Power substations are the crucial nodes of an interconnected grid, serving as the points where power is transferred from the transmission/distribution grids to the loads. However, interconnected cyberphysical systems and communication-based operations at substations lead to many cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Therefore, more sophisticated cybersecurity vulnerability analyses and threat modeling are required during productization phases, and system hardening is mandatory for the commercialization of products. This paper shows the design and methods to test the cybersecurity of multicast messages for digital substations. The proposed vulnerability assessment methods are based on the semantics of IEC61850 Generic Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) and Sampled Value (SV), and cybersecurity features from IEC62351-6. Different case scenarios for cyberattacks are considered to check the vulnerabilities of the device under test (DUT) based on the IEC62351-6 standard. In order to discover security vulnerabilities in a digital substation, the proposed cybersecurity tester will generate malicious packets that compromise the regular functionality. The results show that the proposed cybersecurity testing module is able to detect potential vulnerabilities in multicast messages and the authentication methods (e.g., message authentication code) of multicast communications. Both commercial and simulated devices are used for the case studies.

A Geometrical Approach to Enhance Security Against Cyber Attacks in Digital Substations

“…Regarding the first aspect, as long as GOOSE messages are not encrypted, it is also easy for an attacker to access the private content of the data, thus compromising the confidentiality, i.e., the limitation or restriction on certain types of information [28]. Consequently, the attacker can spoof the Media Access Control address (MAC) of the publisher IEDs using the captured GOOSE messages to deceive subscriber IEDs [29].…”

Research on Fault Prevention and Maintenance System of Automatic Substation Primary Equipment Based on Decision Tree Algorithm

“…Automation technology substation primary equipment needs to provide many kinds of information in the operation and operation and maintenance management and repair process, such as the operating status of machines and equipment, experimental data, safety inspection data information, and status statistics [3]- [4]. With the application and promotion of power information systems such as power production management systems, the data related to the primary equipment of automated substations have been effectively collected and stored [5]- [6]. Knowledge reflecting the state deterioration process of the primary equipment of the automated substation is implied in these data, but it is difficult to extract relevant knowledge by manual statistical analysis of these data because more state quantities can reflect the state change of the primary equipment of the automated substation, and the state change mechanism is more complicated [7]- [8].…”