Vulnerability assessment and experimentation of smart grid DNP3

Abstract

Smart-grids security is becoming a challenging research area that has emerged in recent years facing the energy sector. Threats are arising every day that could cause great scale of damages in critical infrastructure. Our paper will assess vulnerabilities pertaining to internal security threats associated with the smart grid. We will perform penetration testing using various attack scenarios in a simulated virtual environment involving DNP3 protocol. Vulnerability analysis and penetration testing involving Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack will be addressed. Ultimately, by utilizing theoretical modeling of smart-grid attacks using game theory, we will be able to optimize our detection and mitigation strategies to reduce cyber threats in DNP3 environment. Intrusion detection system (IDS) will be necessary to identify attackers targeting the smart grid infrastructure. Mitigation techniques will ensure a healthy check of the network. Performing DNP3 vulnerabilities assessment, security attacks, detections, preventions and counter measures will be our goals to achieve in this research paper.