IEC 62351-11: Draft on Securing XML files

XML (a notation for structured documents) is used in many standards published by IEC TC 57 (Power systems management and associated information exchange). IEC 61850-6 (SCL) is one of these parts that rely on XML and XML schema.

A small change in an SCL file may have a crucial impact of the content of the whole file.  There is a need to secure such files.

IEC TC 57 just published the first CDV:

IEC 62351-11 Ed.1 (57/1562/CDV)

Power systems management and associated information exchange - Data and communications security -
Part 11: Security for XML files

The 62351-11 extensions provide the capability to provide:

• Header information: the header contains information relevant to the creation of the secured document such as the Date and Time of the when the IEC 62351-11 document was created.
• A choice of encapsulating the original XML document in an encrypted (Encrypted) or non-encrypted (nonEncrypted) format. If encryption is chosen, there is a mechanism provided to express the information required to actually perform encryption in an interoperable manner (EncryptionInfo).
• AccessControl: a mechanism to express access control information regarding information contained in the original XML document.
• Body: is used to contain the original XML document that is being encapsulated.
• Signature: a signature that can be used for the purposes of authentication and tamper detection.

What do you think about security? It is important! How many time and money have you and your colleagues or your management spent for making systems more secure? One Euro or 1000 Euro?

When it comes to costs – then people are behaving different.

Be more serious about security.