Many IEC 61850 Projects Under Progress

37 new parts and parts under revision are under progress as listed in the following table:

As you can see here: IEC 61850 is a bit more than another protocol.

Other parts are published already (some of them are under revision - see above):
https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/6028



Unfortunately many "grey-hair experts" with a lot of experience regarding IEC 61850 have been retired and a lot of experience has been wasted ... politics cares more about wasting food than wasting "experience" good for human survival! It's really a pity when we take into account that the comprehensiveness and complexity of IEC 61850 is growing so fast ...

New TC 57 CDVs For Public Comments Posted

IEC TC 57 has posted two new CDVs for public comments (for everybody to read the document for free):

57/2068/CDV
IEC 62351-3/AMD2 ED1: Amendment 2 - Power systems management and associated information exchange - Data and communications security -
Part 3: Communication network and system security - Profiles including TCP/IP 

57/2069/CDV (67 pages)
IEC 62351-8 ED1: Power systems management and associated information exchange - Data and communications security -
Part 8: Role-based access control 

This effort will transform the existing IEC TS 62351-8 ED1 from an IEC TS (Technical Specification) into an IS (International Standard) ED1

Excerpt from the Scope:

"The scope of this standard is to facilitate role-based access control (RBAC) for power system management. RBAC assigns human users, automated systems, and software applications (called “subjects” in this document) to specified “roles”, and restricts their access to only those resources, which the security policies identify as necessary for their roles.

As electric power systems become more automated and cyber security concerns become more prominent, it is becoming increasingly critical to ensure that access to data (read, write, control, etc.) is restricted. As in many aspects of security, RBAC is not just a technology; it is a way of running a business. RBAC is not a new concept; in fact, it is used by many operating systems to control access to system resources. Specifically, RBAC provides an alternative to the all-or-nothing super-user model in which all subjects have access to all data, including control commands. ..."

Be aware that RBAC is required in systems where multiple clients (in the sense of, e.g., IEC 61850) need to access a server. One use case is where multiple power market participants want to manage a power resource. 

Role-based Access Control - On its way to become Standard

IEC 62351-8 is on its way to become an IEC Standard (57/2017/CD):

Power systems management and associated information exchange – Data and communications security –
Part 8: Role-based access control

The part 8 is currently a Technical Specification. This will change in the next step.

The 62 page CD has been published for commenting until 2018-09-28

"This document provides standard for access control in power systems. The power system
environment supported by this standard is enterprise-wide and extends beyond traditional
borders to include external providers, suppliers, and other energy partners. ...

The following interactions are in scope:

• local (direct wired) access to the object by a human user;
• local (direct wired) access to the object by a local and automated computer agent, e.g. another object at the field site;
• direct access by a user to the object using the objects’ built-in HMI or panel;
• remote (via dial-up or wireless media) access to the object by a human user;
• remote (via dial-up or wireless media) access to the object by a remote automated computer agent, e.g. another object at another substation, a distributed energy resource at an end-user’s facility, or a control centre application."

IEC just published Draft Guidelines for Handling Role-based Access Control in Power Systems

IEC TC 57 just published (57/1764/DC):

Draft IEC TR 62351-90-1, Power systems management and associated information exchange – Data and communications security – Part 90-1: Guidelines for Handling Role-based Access Control in Power Systems

This draft technical report addresses the handling of access control of users and automated agents
to data objects in power systems by means of role-based access control (RBAC) as defined in
IEC 62351-8. IEC 62351-8 defines three different profiles to distribute role information and
also defines a set of mandatory roles to be supported. Adoption of RBAC has shown that the
defined mandatory roles are not always sufficient and that the method for defining custom
roles should be standardized to ensure interoperability. Hence, the main focus of this
document lies in developing a standardized method for defining and engineering custom
roles, their role-to-right mappings and the corresponding infrastructure support needed to
utilize these custom roles in power systems.

Comments are welcome latest by 2016-10-07.