PUF-based solutions for secure communications in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) (original) (raw)
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Safe is the New Smart: PUF-Based Authentication for Load Modification-Resistant Smart Meters
IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 2020
In the energy sector, IoT manifests in the form of next-generation power grids that provide enhanced electrical stability, efficient power distribution, and utilization. The primary feature of a Smart Grid is the presence of an advanced bi-directional communication network between the Smart meters at the consumer end and the servers at the Utility Operators. Smart meters are broadly vulnerable to attacks on communication and physical systems. We propose a secure and operationally asymmetric mutual authentication and key-exchange protocol for secure communication. Our protocol balances security and efficiency, delegates complex cryptographic operations to the resource-equipped servers, and carefully manages the workload on the resource-constrained Smart meter nodes using unconventional lightweight primitives such as Physically Unclonable Functions. We prove the security of the protocol using well-established cryptographic assumptions. We implement the proposed scheme end-to-end in a Smart meter prototype using commercial-off-the-shelf products, a Utility server, and a credential generator as the trusted third party. Additionally, we demonstrate a physics-based attack named load modification attack on the Smart meter to demonstrate that merely securing the communication channel using authentication does not secure the meter, but requires further protections to ensure the correctness of the reported consumption. Hence, we propose a countermeasure to such an attack that goes side-by-side with our protocol implementation.
Provably secure and efficient PUF-based broadcast authentication schemes for smart grid applications
International Journal of Communication Systems, 2019
Many smart grid applications need broadcast communications. Because of the critical role of the broadcasted messages in these applications, their authentication is very important to prevent message forgery attacks. Smart grid consists of plenty of low-resource devices such as smart meters or phasor measurement units (PMUs) that are located in physically unprotected environments. Therefore, the storage and computational constraints of these devices as well as their security against physical attacks must be considered in designing broadcast authentication schemes. In this paper, we consider two communication models based on the resources of the broadcasters and receivers and propose a physical unclonable function (PUF)-based broadcast authentication scheme for each of them including Broadcast Authentication with High-Resource Broadcaster (BA-HRB) and Broadcast Authentication with Low-Resource Broadcaster (BA-LRB). We formally prove that both schemes are unforgeable and memory leakage resilient. Moreover, we analyze the performance of our proposed schemes and compare them with related works. The comparison results demonstrate a significant improvement in the storage and computational overhead of our schemes compared with the related works.
A Novel Non-cryptographic Security Services for Advanced Metering Infrastructure in Smart Grid
Communications on Applied Electronics, 2015
Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is an architecture for automated, two-way communication between a smart utility meter and a utility company. It is responsible for collecting all the data and information from the loads and consumers. These data and information are critical as it threats the reliability of electrical energy delivery and consumers' privacy. Traditional security solution rely on public key infrastructure may not suitable due to the scalability of the electric grid. In this paper, the author presents a noncryptographic approach for providing confidentiality, integrity, and authentication (CIA) for AMI. The methods presented in this paper based on the hardware and physical layer approach. A basic idea of the integrity and authentication techniques is to use physical unclonable function (PUF), while the confidentiality technique is based on channel status information of wireless channel between the AMI subsystems. Our approach is secure and efficient for large scale network.
Secure communication for advance metering infrastructure in smart grid
2014 Annual IEEE India Conference (INDICON), 2014
The electrical power industry is in the process of integration with bidirectional information and power flow infrastructure commonly called smart grid. Advance metering infrastructure (AMI) is an important component of the smart grid in which data and signal is transferred from consumer smart meter to smart grid and vice versa. Cyber security is to be considered before implementing AMI applications. For delivering Smart meter data and manage message securely, there is a need of a unique security mechanism to ensure the integration of availability and privacy. In such security mechanisms, the cryptographic overhead, including certificates and signatures, is quite significant for an embedded device like a smart meter in smart grid AMI compared to normal personal computers in a regular enterprise network. Additionally, cryptographic operations contribute significant computational cost, when recipient end verifies the message in each communication. We proposed a light and flexible protocol for secure communication between smart meters and smart grid infrastructure. The proposed protocol authenticate both control center and smart meter and also securely exchange secret key (session key) between two entities for secure communication between them. Proposed protocol help to mitigate several types of attacks on smart grid by identifying the origin of attacks against AMI. The proposed protocol is tested for security and no attack was found. Its performance is also found to be better than existing mechanism.
A novel multi-stage distributed authentication scheme for smart meter communication
PeerJ Computer Science, 2021
Smart meters have ensured effective end-user energy consumption data management and helping the power companies towards network operation efficiency. However, recent studies highlighted that cyber adversaries may launch attacks on smart meters that can cause data availability, integrity, and confidentiality issues both at the consumer side or at a network operator’s end. Therefore, research on smart meter data security has been attributed as one of the top priorities to ensure the safety and reliability of the critical energy system infrastructure. Authentication is one of the basic building blocks of any secure system. Numerous authentication schemes have been proposed for the smart grid, but most of these methods are applicable for two party communication. In this article, we propose a distributed, dynamic multistage authenticated key agreement scheme for smart meter communication. The proposed scheme provides secure authentication between smart meter, NAN gateway, and SCADA energ...
Efficient and Provably Secure Key Agreement for Modern Smart Metering Communications
Energies
Security in modern smart metering communications and in smart grid networks has been an area of interest recently. In this field, identity-based mutual authentication including credential privacy without active involvement of a trusted third party is an important building block for smart grid technology. Recently, several schemes have been proposed for the smart grid with various security features (e.g., mutual authentication and key agreement). Moreover, these schemes are said to offer session key security under the widely accepted Canetti-Krawczyk (CK) security model. Instead, we argue that all of them are still vulnerable under the CK model. To remedy the problem, we present a new provably secure key agreement model for smart metering communications. The proposed model preserves the security features and provides more resistance against a denial of service attack. Moreover, our scheme is pairing-free, resulting in highly efficient computational and communication efforts.
Privacy Assuring Protocol using Simple Cryptographic Operations for Smart Metering
The next era is foreseen to revolutionize the utility application with the technological advancements in IT and telecommunication. Intelligence will be seen in industrial machines equipped with embedded technologies enabling communication using low power wireless technology. Smart meter has recently gained lot of attention from the research community as this has raised unique challenges especially w.r.t security. Privacy preservation in such an environment is discussed to be critical as it may lead to devastating effects or even blackout which has been witnessed before. In this paper, we propose a privacy preserving algorithm which ensures resiliency against credentials theft with cryptographic operations where they are transported in a secure manner. We evaluated different encryption algorithms RC5, MD5, SHA1 in terms of computational and communication resources consumed by them in the proposed privacy preserving algorithm. In future, extensive evaluations and proofs of cryptographic algorithms will be included.
2021 IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR), 2021
with some advanced features when compares with a traditional meter system [1]. The smart meter is a two-way system of information processing and transmission. Furthermore, it connects both the consumer and producers, where consumers can easily control the smart meter according to its usage and requirement. It's an essential part of a smart grid network where production, distribution, transmission, and consumption of electricity is conducted [2]. Moreover, the smart meters are connected with data connectors, utility offices, and meter management system through Local Area Network (LAN), Home Area Network (HAN), Neighborhood Area Network (NAN), and Building Area Network (BAN) [3]. In other words, the whole smart grid network is a modern infrastructure for power generation and distribution that can monitor the user electric consumption and readings at regular intervals. However, currently, the whole existing smart meter technology is facing a huge challenge from cyber-attacks; where outside intrudes have the benefit to add malicious data by adding erroneous values, manipulating the sensor reading, injecting false data etc [4]. In return, it affects the integrity, authentication, confidentiality, availability of the electric data transmission [5]. In the absence of confidentiality in smart meters, data become unauthorized for both consumers and producers. A smart grid network consists of several smart meters, data collectors, and data connectors. There is also a bi-directional communication between Transmission Substation (TS), Distribution Substation (DS), Gateways (GW), Control Center (CC), NAN, BAN, HAN, and LAN [6]. Therefore, safe mutual authentication is required for secure communication between the clients and the smart meter management system. The smart meter is a part of IoT where devices are interconnected with the internet and can exchange information in a distributed network [7]. But this amalgamation of IoT and smart grid network connected with smart meters bring various opportunities for hackers and cyber-intruders to change the network operation and settings for their monetary benefit which affects both the society and smart cities. IP-based and bi-directional communication between smart meters and inbuilt sensors opens several entry points for cyberattackers.[8] Here blockchain techniques can play a major role to provide secure communication between different entry points of the smart meter [7]. The blockchain model works in a decentralized manner which helps in maintaining the records of every transaction that occurred between the different places in a distributed network. Mutual authentication and confidentiality can be Abstract-With the advancement in the growth of Internetof-Things (IoT), its number of applications has also increased such as in healthcare, smart cities, vehicles, industries, household appliances, and Smart Grids (SG). One of the major applications of IoT is the SG and smart meter which consists of a large number of internet-connected sensors and can communicate bi-directionally in real-time. The SG network involves smart meters, data collectors, generators, and sensors connected with the internet. SG networks involve the generation, distribution, transmission, and consumption of electrical power supplies. It consists of Household Area Network (HAN), and Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) for communication. Smart meters can communicate bidirectionally with consumers and provide real-time information to utility offices. But this communication channel is a wide-open network for data transmission. Therefore, it makes the SG network and smart meter vulnerable to outside hacker and various Cyber-Physical System (CPS) attacks such as False Data Injection (FDI), inserting malicious data, erroneous data, manipulating the sensor reading values. Here cryptography techniques can play a major role along with the private blockchain model for secure data transmission in smart meters. Hence, to overcome these existing issues and challenges in smart meter communication we have proposed a blockchain-based system model for secure communication along with a novel Advanced Elliptic Curve Cryptography Digital Signature (AECCDS) algorithm in Fog Computing (FC) environment. Here FC nodes will work as miners at the edge of smart meters for secure and real-time communication. The algorithm is implemented using iFogSim, Geth version 1.9.25, Ganache, Truffle for compiling smart contracts, Anaconda (Python editor), and ATOM as language editor for the smart contracts.
An Efficient Cryptography Key Management for Secure Communications in Smart Metering
International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 2019
Smart Grid (SG) is used in power systems to enhance environmental sustainability and increase the efficiency of energy management. In Smart Grid systems, Smart Meter (SM) is one of the most important devices. The SM is an advanced energy meter that receives data from the load devices of end users and computes the customer’s energy consumption. After that these smart meter transfers the information to the utility company and/or system operator. The secure data transmission is the main issue between the smart meters to the smart grid. Because the advanced metering architecture is vulnerable to the cyber-attacks. In order to ensure the security of smart meter data, the cryptography based encryption techniques are used in the SG. In this paper, the secure data transmission between the SM and the SG is performed by RSA cryptography. The communication over the devices performed by Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK). Here, the data from the SM encrypted using RSA encryption technique and the...