Review and evaluation of security threats on the communication networks in the smart grid

TLDR

The smart grid depends on robust communication networks, making network security a critical concern. The study aims to classify and evaluate security threats to smart grid communication networks, focusing on the impact of denial‑of‑service attacks. The authors use a top‑down analysis to categorize attack goals into availability, integrity, and privacy, qualitatively assess their impact and feasibility, and conduct experiments to quantify the effect of denial‑of‑service attacks on a power substation network. Experimental data show that network performance degrades dramatically only when DoS attack intensity reaches its maximum.

Abstract

The smart grid, generally referred to as the next-generation power electric system, relies on robust communication networks to provide efficient, secure, and reliable information delivery. Thus, the network security is of critical importance in the smart grid. In this paper, we aim at classifying and evaluating the security threats on the communication networks in the smart grid. Based on a top-down analysis, we categorize the goals of potential attacks against the smart grid communication networks into three types: network availability, data integrity and information privacy. We then qualitatively analyze both the impact and feasibility of the three types of attacks. Moreover, since network availability is the top priority in the security objectives for the smart grid, we use experiments to quantitatively evaluate the impact of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on a power substation network. Our work provides initial experimental data of DoS attacks against a power network and shows that the network performance degrades dramatically only when the DoS attack intensity approaches to the maximum.