Increasing the Cybersecurity of Smart Grids by Prosumer Monitoring

Abstract

The evolution from traditional power grids to modern smart grids marks a significant advancement in energy management and efficiency. This transition—driven by the implementation of bidirectional energy and information flows—results in a dramatic increase in infrastructure vulnerability since new entry points are introduced on the attack surface. In particular, prosumers represent a brand new—and, thus, largely unexplored—attack vector, for which a thorough re-evaluation of the existing security measures is very much needed. This article proposes a novel approach to security monitoring, which exploits business process knowledge to effectively identify and mitigate prosumer-specific advanced persistent threats in smart grids. To validate the approach, an experimental campaign is done in a real setup, specifically the power grid of the Berchidda municipality, in Italy. Impact evaluation covers technical as well as business aspects since the analysis includes potential economic consequences of the attacks.