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Automated Cybersecurity Tester for IEC61850-Based Digital Substations

Author

Listed:
  • Junho Hong

    (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI 48128, USA)

  • Tai-Jin Song

    (Department of Urban Engineering, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Korea)

  • Hyojong Lee

    (Hitachi Energy, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA)

  • Aydin Zaboli

    (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI 48128, USA)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Junho Hong & Tai-Jin Song & Hyojong Lee & Aydin Zaboli, 2022. "Automated Cybersecurity Tester for IEC61850-Based Digital Substations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-17, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:21:p:7833-:d:950373
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tanushree Bhattacharjee & Majid Jamil & Majed A. Alotaibi & Hasmat Malik & Mohammed E. Nassar, 2022. "Hardware Development and Interoperability Testing of a Multivendor-IEC-61850-Based Digital Substation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Mohamad El Hariri & Eric Harmon & Tarek Youssef & Mahmoud Saleh & Hany Habib & Osama Mohammed, 2019. "The IEC 61850 Sampled Measured Values Protocol: Analysis, Threat Identification, and Feasibility of Using NN Forecasters to Detect Spoofed Packets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-24, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Boeding, Matthew & Hempel, Michael & Sharif, Hamid & Lopez, Juan & Perumalla, Kalyan, 2023. "A flexible OT testbed for evaluating on-device implementations of IEC-61850 GOOSE," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).

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