Securing Smart Grid Cyber-Physical Infrastructure against Emerging Threats

Dear Colleagues,

Traditionally, SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) infrastructure, used for remotely controlling and monitoring power grid systems, has been considered free from cybersecurity risks mainly because of the “airgap” that isolates the system infrastructure from the rest of the world. However, real-world incidents, such as Stuxnet and Ukraine power plant attacks, demonstrated that such security assumptions and models that assume the control centers are fully trusted no longer hold. Defence of our critical smart grid infrastructure against emerging cyber and cyber-physical attacks poses unique challenges, such as difficulty in modifying/upgrading devices and infrastructure, resource constraints, legacy compatibility, and stringent latency constraints, which would make application of established cybersecurity solutions for enterprise IT systems etc. difficult or less effective. The main aim of this special issue is to attract state-of-the-art, practical, cyber-physical security solutions specifically designed to address challenges in the smart grid systems. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Cross-domain, cyber-physical intrusion/anomaly detection systems for smart grid
• AI/Machine learning application for smart grid security and resilience
• Cryptography and key management for smart grid
• Context-aware command authentication/validation in smart grid
• Deception technologies and moving-target defence for smart grid
• Design and implementation of smart grid security testbed and cyber range
• Internet of Things for security smart grid
• Blockchain application for smart grid (e.g., energy trading)
• Cloud security for smart grid
• Security and privacy in energy Internet
• Secure, privacy-aware demand response
• Threat intelligence collection and analysis
• False data injection attacks and mitigation techniques

Dr. Daisuke Mashima
Dr. Subhash Lakshminarayana
Dr. Prosanta Gope
Dr. Neetesh Saxena
Guest Editors

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