Temple University

Smart grid includes two interdependent infrastructures: power transmission and distribution network, and the supporting telecommunications network. Complex interactions among these infrastructures lead to new pathways for attack and failure propagation that are currently not well understood. This innovative project takes a holistic multilevel approach to understand and characterize the interdependencies between these two infrastructures, and devise mechanisms to enhance their robustness.

Overview: The existence of complex interactions and interdependencies in cyber-physical critical infrastructures is well known, but a poorly understood phenomena. As an example, a smart grid (SG) is dependent on the cyber infrastructure for advanced metering, data collection/analytics and control, and this dependency brings in serious security and vulnerability implications.

Securing critical networked cyber-physical systems (NCPSs) such as the power grid or transportation systems has emerged as a major national and global priority. The networked nature of such systems renders them vulnerable to a range of attacks both in cyber and physical domains as corroborated by recent threats such as the Energetic Bear virus.