Abstract:
The presented dissertation concentrates on the security landscape in smart grid and proposes works to create a more accountable environment in the smart grid home area network (HAN). The principal thought behind the research is security and accountability in the smart grid and the smart grid HAN. Creating a more accountable HAN environment is essential in addressing these matters. More specifically, accountability as it pertains to the HAN, can be described as an assurance that each device within the HAN is held responsible for its own behavior and that those behaviors which belong to it are all provable and non-repudiation is upheld at a more intricate level than current offerings provide. Therefore, the dissertation addresses accountability in the HAN by methods implementing fine grained observation and monitoring of the devices therein. The first work of the dissertation addresses security in the smart grid. Recent work in smart grid has failed to give detailed holistic accounts of techniques which exploit several issues and vulnerabilities within the infrastructure and software which makes up the smart grid. Therefore, a holistic view which covers malicious actions and their impact on the grid and its components is provided. Countermeasures for these exploits are also discussed. Next, we propose an accountable method which provides for grouping and inspection of the devices in the HAN in order to efficiently pinpoint malicious and malfunctioning devices therein. The experimental results show that the method is effective in its efficiency and scheme. Lastly, we develop a method which addresses accountability of devices in the HAN which use varying amounts of energy during its operational phases. Method analysis and simulation results show that the method is effective, and that the method maintains a false alarm and error rate that is acceptable based on today's standards without prolonged training times.
