How to secure Millions of devices in a Smart(er) Grid?

There are may R&D projects underway to find appropriate ways how to secure millions of devices that need to communicate – all over.

A nice paper discusses this issues in the light of the question: what is a workable solution for a some hundred devices may not scale for millions of devices.

The report concludes: “The cryptographic infrastructure underlying the smart
grid the community envisions will likely require PKI, for scalability – but this is the beginning, not the end, of the solution.”

The good message we hear more often these days is: The path to smart(er) Hybrid Grids (power, gas, heat, …) will be long and steep. A challenge for a people involved – one way or the other.

Click HERE for the 3 page paper.

There is some progress in making power system automation more secure. Siemens writes in the SIPROTEC 5 - System Overview, Protection, Automation and Monitoring · Siemens SIP 5.01 · V1.0 (not yet available for download):

• Long-lasting, rugged hardware with outstanding EMC immunity and resistance to weather and mechanical loads
• Sophisticated self-monitoring routines identify and report device malfunctions immediately and reliably
• Conformance with the stringent Cyber Security requirements defined in the BDEW Whitepaper and NERC CIP
• Encryption along the entire communication segment between DIGS I 5 and the device
• Automatic recording of access attempts and security critical operations on the devices and systems

Click HERE for the DBEW Whitepaper “Requirements for Secure Control and Telecommunication Systems” [Dual Language: EN/DE]

Click HERE for further information in German (only).

Garderos (Munich, Germany) offers industrial-grade (ruggedized) routers which are self-managing and cyber-secure … secure against cyber-attacks … applicable for power grid applications.