Biblio

Grid modernization efforts with the latest information and communication technologies will significantly benefit smart grids in the coming years. More optical fibre communications between consumers and the control center will promise better demand response and customer engagement, yet the increasing attack surface and man-in-the-middle (MITM) threats can result in security and privacy challenges. Among the studies for more secure smart grid communications, quantum key distribution protocols (QKD) have emerged as a promising option. To bridge the theoretical advantages of quantum communication to its practical utilization, however, comprehensive investigations have to be conducted with realistic cyber-physical smart grid structures and scenarios. To facilitate research in this direction, this paper proposes an open-source, research-oriented co-simulation platform that orchestrates cyber and power simulators under the MOSAIK framework. The proposed platform allows flexible and realistic power flow-based co-simulation of quantum communications and electrical grids, where different cyber and power topologies, QKD protocols, and attack threats can be investigated. Using quantum-based communication under MITM attacks, the paper presented detailed case studies to demonstrate how the platform enables quick setup of a lowvoltage distribution grid, implementation of different protocols and cryptosystems, as well as evaluations of both communication efficiency and security against MITM attacks. The platform has been made available online to empower researchers in the modelling of quantum-based cyber-physical systems, pilot studies on quantum communications in smart grid, as well as improved attack resilience against malicious intruders.

The Internet of Things (IoT) will connect not only computers and mobile devices, but it will also interconnect smart buildings, houses, and cities, as well as electrical grids, gas plants, and water networks, automobiles, airplanes, etc. IoT will lead to the development of a wide range of advanced information services that are pervasive, cost-effective, and can be accessed from anywhere and at any time. However, due to the exponential number of interconnected devices, cyber-security in the IoT is a major challenge. It heavily relies on the digital identity concept to build security mechanisms such as authentication and authorization. Current centralized identity management systems are built around third party identity providers, which raise privacy concerns and present a single point of failure. In addition, IoT unconventional characteristics such as scalability, heterogeneity and mobility require new identity management systems to operate in distributed and trustless environments, and uniquely identify a particular device based on its intrinsic digital properties and its relation to its human owner. In order to deal with these challenges, we present a Blockchain-based Identity Framework for IoT (BIFIT). We show how to apply our BIFIT to IoT smart homes to achieve identity self-management by end users. In the context of smart home, the framework autonomously extracts appliances signatures and creates blockchain-based identifies for their appliance owners. It also correlates appliances signatures (low level identities) and owners identifies in order to use them in authentication credentials and to make sure that any IoT entity is behaving normally.