What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Smart Grid Misuse Case Scenarios

Abstract

The modernisation of the power grid is ongoing, and the level of digitalisation of the power grid in, say, ten years may be quite different than today. Cyber security needs will change correspondingly. In this paper we utilise a qualitative research approach to explore misuse cases related to three main areas of modernisation that we envision for the next ten year period: 1) managing flexibility in the TSO-DSO relation, 2) smart distribution grids, and 3) microgrids. The misuse cases represent potential security challenges to be considered when working on modernising the grid, however they are not exhaustive. The misuse cases presented in this paper can contribute to identifying security requirements, thus reducing associated cyber risks, and assist in development of new cyber security mechanisms for the next-generation power grid employing digitally-connected, selfhealing, and automation characteristics.

Improving smart grid security through 5G enabled IoT and edge computing

“…For further work, we would like to perform a laboratory implementation of our use case which would allow us to implement specific misuse cases 49 to validate identification and mitigation methods, as part of a broader study of controller architecture and resilience. Furthermore, though we have presented a threat model for our use case, a natural next step is to develop a threat model for the entire smart grid ecosystem.…”

“…Bekara 40 and Kimani et al 39 discuss cyber security challenges for IoT‐based smart grid networks. Gunduz and Das 36 discuss smart grid treats and solutions, whereas Tøndel et al 49 introduce a number of relevant misuse case scenarios that highlight new threats in the evolving smart grid. Otuoze et al 50 look into where the smart grid threats originate from.…”

“…This could be achieved by, for example, manipulating the setpoints as they are communicated from the control room (trust boundary in Figure 6) or from the IoT GW (trust boundary ). More attack (or misuse case) scenarios are described by Tøndel et al 49 …”