How a Simple Hand shake can save the Grid

Gautham Govind & Munish Gupta

Incidents of Note

• 2003 blackout in North America. • Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid

and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system.

• Russian Hackers Breach Central Illinois Water system

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Impact

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Image Courtesy: www.npr.org

• Monetary loss in terms of billions of $• Terrorist getting access to the grid

• Mass Outage• Critical systems brought down• Defense systems not working

Index

• Security Flaws• Security Compromised – An Example• Our Approach• Q & A

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Security Flaws

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• Confidentiality : When Secrets are no more secrets

• Integrity : Source doesn’t matter when wrong person is in control

• Access Control : Owner forgets, Neighbor peeks in

Security Compromised – An Example

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• Mr. S is the Owner of the network

• Mr. S has rights to change the configurations

• Mr. S has in depth knowledge of the system

• Mr. S forgets to lock his system

Confidentiality Lost!

• When secrets are no more secrets

– An unlocked computer is like a Treasury with the gates open

– Designs could be stolen and leaked out

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Integrity Lost!

• Source doesn’t matter when wrong person is in control

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Integrity Lost!

• Source doesn’t matter when wrong person is in control

– Commands could be sent out to change configurations

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Access Control

• Owner forgets, Neighbor peeks in

– Users getting to see high level information not meant for them

– Temptation can force human mind to do the damage

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A Generic Command Flow

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What we Propose

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A common dilemma

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• What if the user forgets mobile at home?

Dilemma? Resolved

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Advantages & Disadvantages

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Advantages– Added layer of Security– Multi level Authentication– Prompt Identification of Security Risk

Disadvantages– May impact performance

• Can be tackled by improved infrastructure

Q & A

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References

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• http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-21/news/30424376_1_cyber-attack-cyber-war-smart-grid

• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-01/cyber-attack-on-u-s-power-grid-seen-leaving-millions-in-dark-for-months.html

• http://www.npr.org

Thanks

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• Sincere Thanks to Landis + Gyr for providing the necessary guidance and support