Impact of botnet DDoS attacks in the communications network of a Smart Grid Infrastructure

What is it about?

An ongoing evolution of the power grids into more intelligent and sophisticated ones has been taking place since the beginning of the 21st century. The underlying objective of the power systems is to deliver electrical energy with high-security standards, i.e. to supply power to the consumers uninterruptedly. However, the integration of information technology into the smart grid introduces new vulnerabilities related to cyber-security which the authors should address extensively. This study discusses the impact of coordinated cyber-attacks on the advanced metering infrastructure. In this work, emulations of distributed denial-of-service attacks in a closed testbed environment using a topology of smart meters that participate in an electricity market are being performed. This study proposes a method to evaluate the impact on the reliability of such attacks. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can serve as a tool for the evaluation of the short-term risk of botnet attacks during load shifting in smart distribution networks.

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Why is it important?

By examining such an impact on the Smart Grids, we will be able to secure the network from malicious attackers or effectively detect and prevent such large-scale attacks from taking place in the electrical networks. The reserach itself gives an introduction of the dangers from malicious attackers that might penetrate and cause damage to the electric networks by providing a case study scenario of a DDoS attack against a number of consumers. The results can be expanded on large-scale in order to demonstrate the gravely negative impact of large-scale attacks on the reliable and uninterrupted operation of the grid

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