Preliminary Studies of the Security of the Cyber-Physical Smart Grids

The electric power network is a cyber-physical system (CPS) that is important for modern society. Smart Grids (SG) can improve the electric power system’s profitability and reliability by integrating renewable energy and advanced communication technologies. The communication network that connects numerous generators, devices, and controllers distributed remotely plays a vital role in controlling electrical grids, and the trends favor the implementation of IoT devices. However, it is vulnerable to cyber-attacks. This paper presents our current studies of potential malware that can attack these power systems and investigate future strategies to improve that security and risk management. The paper explains as the first step the explanation of a Delphi with experts from the top security companies in order to understand the trends and malware beyond an extensive literature survey. Also, the paper studies the propagation of the selected malware using System Dynamics. Finally, conclusions are provided, allowing future work to be accomplished using multiple resolution modeling (MRM) (i.e., a form of distributed simulation).