CIP2015

Smart Grid Vulnerability Assessment Using National Testbed NetworksIHAB DARWISH OBINNA IGBE TAREQ SAADAWI

CIP2015

Objectives

Critical infrastructure – Energy Sector Smart Grids Security Policies and Strategies Smart Grid Vulnerabilities, Threats and

Risk Management National Testbed Environment Attack Demo using DETER Network

CIP2015

Critical Infrastructure - Sectors

Energy Sector

Petroleum

Electricity

Natural Gas

Generation including

Renewable Energy

Transmission

Distribution of Electricicity

SCADA Control System

Electricity Market

Transportation System

ITSector

Critical Infra-Structure

Water & Waste Water

Systems

***Chemical

Financial ServicesEmergency Services

DamsCritical Manufacturing

Food & AgricultureGovernment Facilities

Healthcare & Public HealthNuclear Reactors, Materials and

WasteCommercial Facilities

Defense Industrial Base****************************

Other Sectors

Critical infrastructure is a collection of systems and assets tangible and non-tangible that provides critical services to the nation.

CIP2015Critical Infrastructure – Energy

Sector

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), more than 80% of the US energy infrastructure is owned and operated by private sectors.

Energy sector is providing different kinds of energy sources including electricity, petroleum and natural gas to households and businesses.

More than 6400 power plants, 30,000 substations and 200,000 miles of transmission lines in the nation.

CIP2015

Critical Infrastructure – Smart Grids

Initiated by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) according to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2009.

To establish intelligence and interoperability that incorporate smart technologies with various electricity distribution facilities to improve reliability of the grids.

Transmission Lines and Smart-Grid Power NetworkOverlay

Smart-Grid Communication InfrastructureOverlay

Reliability

Reliability is about 100% Availability

CIP2015

Smart Grid as Micro-Grids

Smart grid is a collection of micro-grids interconnected and linked to the SCADA operating at the control center.

Several measurement areas can be performed in each micro-grids including power conditioning, time synchronization, validation, metering and others.

Micro-Grid is Isolated in case of Hazards

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Smart Grid - Protocols

Master Slave

Micro-Grid 2

Master Slave

Micro-Grid 1

ICCP – Inter-Master Link

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Popular Smart Grid Protocols

Modbus Industrial protocol used in

SCADA

Serial and TCP versions

Master and Slave operation

DNP3 Open standard – IEEE

Most used protocol in the US

Supports Secured Authentication

IEC 61850 Most recent Industry Electronic

Commissions protocol

Substation Automation

Comprehensive set of protocols using layer-link multicasting protocol (GOOSE)

ICCP Inter- Control Center

Communication Protocol – IEC60870-6

Used primarily to interconnect masters from different micro-grids.

CIP2015Security Policies and Strategies -

Penetration

Penetration starts with the weak security perimeter as a back door to all possibilities in an attempt to reach the most critical part of the organization with high security.

Weaknesses – Systems, Policies and Procedures

Layer 1 Layer 2 Layer 3Highly Secure

Layer

Attacker

CIP2015Security Policies and Strategies -

Critical Infrastructure Organizations

DOE –C2M2

DHSICS

CERT

DOC NIST

CERTS

DHSNIPP

EPRI

National Infrastructure Protection Plan

DOENSTB

NERC North American Electric Reliability Corporation

Security policies in critical infrastructure provide the strategy and the governing rules for guidance in protecting critical infrastructure components and valuable assets.

NIST Security Policies

CIP2015Security Policies and Strategies -

Implementations

DOE –C2M2

DHSICS

CERT

DOC NIST

CERTS

DHSNIPP

EPRI

National Infrastructure Protection Plan

DOENSTB

NERC North American Electric Reliability Corporation

Policies should be applicable Polices should enforced Empowering users for policy

adoption Policy auditing

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Critical Infrastructure Strategy

Adhere to all legal and legislative requirements and satisfy the government mandatory information management and security principles.

Develop, document, implement, and review information security controls.

Ensure that smart-grids infrastructure and information systems operate with a high degree of assurance and integrity.

Protect assets and data both physically and logically.

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Defense of Depth Security Model

An enhanced practical strategy for achieving system reliability and information accuracy.

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Defense of Depth Security Model

Layer Defense Mechanism IssuesFirst Layer “Policies and Procedures”

   

Second Layer “Physical Security”

   

Third Layer “Security Perimeter”

Firewalls, VPN encryption Network-based Anti-virus

Vulnerable to attackers

Fourth Layer “Network”

 

Network based intrusion detection systems (IDS)

Vulnerability management systems Network access control and User

Authentication

Could cause false alarms Unauthenticated Access &

Exploitation 

Fifth Layer “Host” Host IDS Host Anti-Virus

Host based control, but limited to each device.

New attacks are not detected

Sixth Layer “Applications”

Public Key Interface (PKI) and RSA Access Control and Authentication

Overhead and slow performance

Seventh Layer “Data”

Encryption Good security but subject to security policies

CIP2015Smart Grid Vulnerabilities, Threats

and Risk Management – Energy SectorYear Number of

Incidents% of Incidents

in Energy Sector

Number of Vulnerabilities

Threat Activities Vector or Examples

2014 245 32% 159 Unauthenticated Access & Exploitation

Buffer overflow Spear Phishing Network Scanning and probing SQL Injection Unknown Access Vector (almost

50% of the cases)

2013 256 59% 187

2012 198 41% 171

2011 140 35% 138

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Attack and Penetration Strategy

Shared Services

Shared Services Zone

Trusted Network Zone A

Untrusted Zone

Security Perimeter

Target

Trusted Network Zone B

Trusted Network Zone C

Penetration

Reconnaissance or data gathering stage

Scanning for potential target(s) and possible vulnerabilities

Exploiting the vulnerability discovered.

Accessing the compromised host through logical connection

CIP2015Critical Infrastructure Security

Concerns

Critical cybersecurity concerns that need to be addressed in critical infrastructure are so many.

Security Concerns in Smart Grids

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Risk Management

“Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm”

Georg C. Lichtenberg, (1742-1799)

German Scientist

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Risk Management Strategy

AttackVector

Comparison

AttackVector

Comparison

EstablishAttack

Behavior

EstablishAttack

Behavior

EstablishImpactTheory

EstablishImpactTheory

DevelopMitigation Strategies

DevelopMitigation Strategies

ImplementSpecificStrategy

ImplementSpecificStrategy

Risk Analysis

EnvironmentalVariables

CountermeasureAnalysis

Continuous Improvements& Change Management

VulnerabilityAssessment

ThreatAnalysis

ImpactAnalysis

Research and Incident Analysis Detection and Mitigation PlanningRisk = Threat x Vulnerability x

Impact

CIP2015Security Policies and Strategies

Balance

Tools

Policies

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National Testbed Environments

With increased smart-grid complexity, experimental studies of large-scale grids are usually not economically feasible, even for small micro-grid environment with limited number of distributed energy sources and intelligent loads

• National Scada Test Bed (NSTB)

• Smart Grid System Testbed Facility

• DeterLab Testbed Environment

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Security Penetration Example

DEMO

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Conclusion

Critical infrastructure – Energy Sector Smart Grids Security Policies and Strategies Smart Grid Vulnerabilities, Threats

and Risk Management National Testbed Environment Attack Demo using DETER Network

CIP2015

Thank You

CIP2015

References

Georg C. Lichtenberg. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved October 10, 2015, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgclic403861.html