Elliptic Curve Cryptography-Based Authentication with Identity Protection for Smart Grids

Abstract

In a smart grid, the power service provider enables the expected power generation amount to be measured according to current power consumption, thus stabilizing the power system. However, the data transmitted over smart grids are not protected, and then suffer from several types of security threats and attacks. Thus, a robust and efficient authentication protocol should be provided to strength the security of smart grid networks. As the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system provides the security protection between the control center and substations in most smart grid environments, we focus on how to secure the communications between the substations and smart appliances. Existing security approaches fail to address the performance-security balance. In this study, we suggest a mitigation authentication protocol based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography with privacy protection by using a tamper-resistant device at the smart appliance side to achieve a delicate balance between performance and security of smart grids. The proposed protocol provides some attractive features such as identity protection, mutual authentication and key agreement. Finally, we demonstrate the completeness of the proposed protocol using the Gong-Needham- Yahalom logic.

Smart Grid Metering Networks: A Survey on Security, Privacy and Open Research Issues

“…To provide security properties, a mitigation authentication protocol is proposed by [193]. The scheme provides mutual authentication and key agreement, and preserves identity privacy.…”

“…Pros: authentication with identity protection; privacy protection at SM; and less storage overhead and communication cost. [193] Cons: no threat model; and no simulations/proof-of-concepts Data management -HAN, NAN Simulation 2,3,4…”

Lightweight Authentication Protocol in Edge-based Smart Grid Environment

“…Zhang et al [18] designed an authentication protocol based on elliptic curve cryptography for an SG, which can provide privacy protection. The authors claimed that the protocol has the advantages of identity protection, mutual authentication, and key agreement.…”

“…A key agreement and mutual authentication protocol are efficient solutions to solving this problem. Several studies have also proposed protocols related to SGs [15,16,17,18,19]. However, a mutual authentication protocol for an SG based on the use of edge computing has yet to be proposed.…”

A Privacy-Preserving Noise Addition Data Aggregation Scheme for Smart Grid

“…Besides these ways of protecting the privacy of smart meter consumption, authentication between the smart meter and the aggregator is another factor that should receive attention when thinking about privacy protection. Elliptic curve [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and bilinear map pairing [26][27][28][29][30] are two of the most commonly used encryption methods for authentication schemes. Generally speaking, the bilinear map requires more computation cost than the elliptic curve method, and the elliptic curve method is more efficient.…”