Securing the Power Grid: Protecting Smart Grids and Connected Power Systems from Cyberattacks

In 2007, a demonstration of the Aurora Generator Test by Idaho National Laboratory [1] showed that, by using simple programs, hackers could take control of a power plant's circuit breaker and physically damage a generator. Ever since then, cyberattacks on power grids, connected power systems, and digital communication networks have been on the rise both in Europe and the United States. The modernization of what is commonly known as the smart grid has opened many more vulnerable points for the hackers to gain access to it, the connected computer systems, and the digital control. The December 2016 attack on the Ukrainian electric utility Ukrenergo in Kiev was a wake-up call. Using grid sabotaging malware, which the cybersecurity firm Dragos called Crash Override and the Slovak antivirus firm ESET called Industroyer, hackers exploited the weakness of the Ukrainian utility's Microsoft Windows machines in its information technology (IT) and communication networks to access the system and control the on/off switching devices of the power transmission lines. The hackers shut the control relays of the plant and plunged the region into darkness for hours.