A Synthesized Dataset for Cybersecurity Study of IEC 61850 based Substation

Cyber attacks pose a major threat to smart grid infrastructures where communication links bind physical devices to provide critical measurement, protection, and control functionalities. Substation is an integral part of a power system. Modern substations with intelligent electronic devices and remote access interface are more prone to cyber attacks. Hence, there is an urgent need to consider cybersecurity at the electrical substation level. This paper makes a systematic effort to develop a synthesized dataset focusing on IEC 61850 GOOSE communication that is essential for automation and protection in smart grid. The dataset is intended to facilitate the research community to study the cybersecurity of substations. We present the physical system of a typical distribution level substation and several of its critical electrical protection operation scenarios under different disturbances, followed by several cyber-attack scenarios. We have generated a dataset with multiple traces that correspond to these scenarios and demonstrated how the dataset can be used to support substation cybersecurity research.