Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Small: Enabling Programmable In-Network Security for an Attack-Resilient Smart Grid

Modern energy systems are increasingly adopting Internet technology to boost efficiency, which opens new security frontiers. On the one hand, the underlying network infrastructure used by existing power grids significantly limits the performance of current security measures. On the other hand, Internet companies are undergoing a foundational change in their network infrastructure, mainly driven by deploying advanced programmable network architectures. This project aims to create and quantify programmable in-network security measures for an attack-resilient power grid. Achieving this objective involves integrating the advancement of data-plane programmability into energy system cyber infrastructure, and based on this, further exploring numerous applications across attack detection, mitigation, and prevention to secure today’s energy systems. The outcomes of the project will have significant impacts on industrial practice through the suitable adoption of the proposed programmable cyber-infrastructure to realize a defense-in-depth approach for future energy systems. The work will also train students and workforce with cutting-edge and cross-disciplinary knowledge in power systems, networking, and cyber-security. The project aims to build the next-generation programmable cyber-infrastructure for energy system protection with three research thrusts: (i) an in-network cyber-attack detection system with high-speed and customizable packet inspection; (ii) a self-healing system that automatically restores network connectivity and recovers corrupted measurements by considering characteristics from both communication networks and physical devices; and (iii) an in-network traffic scheduler that disrupts attack reconnaissance while maintaining quality-of-service requirements. The impact of the proposed research will lay a scientific foundation for system design through the development of models, algorithms, and tools that incorporate both cyber and physical system properties. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.