Cyber security analysis of Web-of-Cells energy architectures

The evolution of the power grid toward a distributed architecture requires rethinking of the traditional control strategies. From a hierarchical structure the future grid moves on to a decentralized organization where the Distributed Energy Resources are spread over the whole infrastructure. The control strategies need to implement new functionalities where the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) components represent essential assets and the cyber security issues have to be addressed very carefully. This paper presents a methodology for the cyber security analysis of an ICT architecture implementing the Web-of-Cells (WoC) concept for the control of the future power grid as proposed by the ELECTRA EU project. Starting from a WoC architecture, a realistic Cell network topology is modelled by the securiCAD tool. The model comprises cells where the main ICT assets (hosts, network nodes, programs, services and data flows) contain vulnerabilities allowing that possible attack steps are deployed to perform a cyber attack. To contrast the attack process, specific cyber security measures can be included in the model. The cyber security analysis is performed by means of the securiCAD tool implementing the proposed methodology for the evaluation of the attack graphs and the computation of the TTC (Time To Compromise) indicator. TTC represents the expected time an attacker would take to compromise every single asset in the modelled ICT infrastructure. The methodology allows to perform a sensitivity analysis estimating the efficacy of the applied mitigation measures by comparing the TTC values in the different model setups. The cyber security analysis described in this paper addresses the cyber threat assessment of a sample multi phase attack process by evaluating the possible attack paths and obtaining the TTC values for the attack target assets

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Roberta Terruggia

Giovanna Dondossola

Mathias Ekstedt

Conference

Publication date: August 2018

Publication date (Print): August 2018

Pages: 41-50

Affiliations

[1 ]RSE SpA Italy

[2 ]KTH Sweden

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/ICS2018.5

SO-VID: d501ed4d-c3a4-4690-ae7e-2333e492efdc

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: 5th International Symposium for ICS & SCADA Cyber Security Research 2018

Conference acronym: ICS-CSR 2018

Conference number: 5

Conference location: University of Hamburg, Germany

Conference date: 29 - 30 August 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: ICS & SCADA Cyber Security Research

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/ICS2018.5

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

ELECTRA IRP EU project available at http://www.electrairp.eu
SecuriCAD Cyber Thread Modeling and Risk Management – securiCAD by foreseeti More information available and community edition of the tool at: https://www.foreseeti.com/
M. KormanM. VäljaG. BjörkmanM. EkstedtA. VernotteR. Lagerström “Analyzing the effectiveness of attack countermeasures in a SCADA system”, In: Proceedings - 2017 2nd Workshop on Cyber-Physical Security and Resilience in Smart Grids, CPSR-SG 2017 Association for Computing Machinery, Inc 2017 73 78
G. DondossolaS. FriesD. EngelC. NeureiterR. TerruggiaM. Uslar: “Smart Energy Grid - Coordination Group Cyber Security & Privacy (SEG-CG/CSP Report)”, CEN-CENELEC-ETSI - CCMC 1 1 69 ftp://ftp.cencenelec.eu/EN/EuropeanStandardization/Fields/EnergySustainability/SmartGrid/CyberSecurity-Privacy-Report.pdf
L. MartiniH. BrunnerE. RodriguezC. CaertsT. I. StrasserG. M. Burt “The grid of the future and the need for a decentralized control architecture: the Web-of-Cells concept” CIRED 2017 24th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Glasgow 12 15 June 2017
B. KordyS. MauwS. RadomirovićP. Schweitzer “Foundations of Attack-Defense Trees”, In Formal Aspects of Security and Trust (FAST’10) 6561 of LNCS 80 95 Springer 2011
T. Sommestad 2012 “A framework and theory for cyber security assessments”, PhD Thesis, Industrial information and control systems Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden
ELECTRA Deliverable 5.3 “The Web-of-Cells control architecture for operating future power systems”, http://www.electrairp.eu
ELECTRA Deliverable 4.4 “ELECTRA Web-Of- Cells Cyber Security Analysis Report”, http://www.electrairp.eu
M.A. McQueenW. F. BoyerM.A. FlynnG. A. Beitel “Time-to-compromise model for cyber risk reduction estimation”, Quality of Protection Workshop, ESORICS 2006
B. V. CherkasskyA. V. GoldbergT. Radzik “Shortest paths algorithms: Theory and experimental evaluation” Mathematical Programming 1996 73 2 129 174
D. Codetta RaiteriL. PortinaleR. Terruggia “Quantitative Evaluation of Attack/Defense Scenarios through Decision Network Modelling and Analysis”, Proc. IEEE Intern. Carnhan Conference on Security Technology (ICCST 2014) 432 437 13 16 Oct 2014
E. M. HutchinsM. J. CloppertR. M. Amin “Intelligence-Driven Computer Network Defense Informed by Analysis of Adversary Campaigns and Intrusion Kill Chains”, 6th Annual International Conference on Information Warfare and Security Washington, DC 2011
J. ByresM. FranzD. Miller 2004 The use of attack trees in assessing vulnerabilities in SCADA systems Proceedings of the International Infrastructure Survivability Workshop Lisbon
P. Chee-Wooi TenG. ManimaranC. C. Liu 2010 Cybersecurity for critical infrastructures: Attack and defense modeling IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybernet. Part A 40 2010 853 65 4
B. KordyS. MauwS. RadomirovicP. Schweitzer Attack defense trees The Journal of Logic and Computation 2012
A. RoyD.S. KimK. Trivedi Scalable optimal countermeasure selection using implicit enumeration on attack countermeasure trees Proc. 42nd Int. Conf. on Dependable Systems and Networks Boston, MA 2012
T. SommestadM. EkstedtP. Johnson Cyber security risks assessment with bayesian defense graphs and architectural models Proc. 42nd HICSS ’09 1 10 2009
W. Shaw SCADA system vulnerabilities to cyber attack 2012 Electric Energy online.com Available at http://www.electricenergyonline.com/show_article.php?mag=&article=181
W. Kroeger Critical infrastructures at risk: a need for a new conceptual approach and extended analytical tools Reliab. Eng. Syst. Safety 93 2008 1781 1787
B. Schneier B. Attack trees Dr. Dobb Journal of Software Tools 24 12 1999 21 29
A. BobbioL. EgidiR. Terruggia A methodology for qualitative/quantitative analysis of weighted attack trees IFAC Proceedings Volumes 46 22 2013 133 138
A. BobbioL. EgidiR. Terruggia, E. CiancamerlaM. Minichino Weighted attack trees for the cybersecurity analysis of SCADA systems 3rd International Defense and Homeland Security Simulation Workshop, DHSS 2013, Held at the International Multidisciplinary Modeling and Simulation Multiconference I3M 2013 33 40
US-CERT https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA18-074A
G. DondossolaL.P. CambacedesJ. McDonaldM. EkstedtA. Torkilseng 2011 “Modelling of cyber attacks for assessing smart grid security”, Proceedings Cigré D2 2011 Colloquium Buenos Aires 19-20 October 2011
E-ISAC SANS-ICS ICS Defense Use Case No. 6: Modular ICS Malware August 2017

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] ELECTRA IRP EU project available at http://www.electrairp.eu

[2] SecuriCAD Cyber Thread Modeling and Risk Management – securiCAD by foreseeti More information available and community edition of the tool at: https://www.foreseeti.com/

[3] M. KormanM. VäljaG. BjörkmanM. EkstedtA. VernotteR. Lagerström “Analyzing the effectiveness of attack countermeasures in a SCADA system”, In: Proceedings - 2017 2nd Workshop on Cyber-Physical Security and Resilience in Smart Grids, CPSR-SG 2017 Association for Computing Machinery, Inc 2017 73 78

[4] G. DondossolaS. FriesD. EngelC. NeureiterR. TerruggiaM. Uslar: “Smart Energy Grid - Coordination Group Cyber Security & Privacy (SEG-CG/CSP Report)”, CEN-CENELEC-ETSI - CCMC 1 1 69 ftp://ftp.cencenelec.eu/EN/EuropeanStandardization/Fields/EnergySustainability/SmartGrid/CyberSecurity-Privacy-Report.pdf

[5] L. MartiniH. BrunnerE. RodriguezC. CaertsT. I. StrasserG. M. Burt “The grid of the future and the need for a decentralized control architecture: the Web-of-Cells concept” CIRED 2017 24th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Glasgow 12 15 June 2017

[6] B. KordyS. MauwS. RadomirovićP. Schweitzer “Foundations of Attack-Defense Trees”, In Formal Aspects of Security and Trust (FAST’10) 6561 of LNCS 80 95 Springer 2011

[7] T. Sommestad 2012 “A framework and theory for cyber security assessments”, PhD Thesis, Industrial information and control systems Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden

[8] ELECTRA Deliverable 5.3 “The Web-of-Cells control architecture for operating future power systems”, http://www.electrairp.eu

[9] ELECTRA Deliverable 4.4 “ELECTRA Web-Of- Cells Cyber Security Analysis Report”, http://www.electrairp.eu

[10] M.A. McQueenW. F. BoyerM.A. FlynnG. A. Beitel “Time-to-compromise model for cyber risk reduction estimation”, Quality of Protection Workshop, ESORICS 2006

[11] B. V. CherkasskyA. V. GoldbergT. Radzik “Shortest paths algorithms: Theory and experimental evaluation” Mathematical Programming 1996 73 2 129 174

[12] D. Codetta RaiteriL. PortinaleR. Terruggia “Quantitative Evaluation of Attack/Defense Scenarios through Decision Network Modelling and Analysis”, Proc. IEEE Intern. Carnhan Conference on Security Technology (ICCST 2014) 432 437 13 16 Oct 2014

[13] E. M. HutchinsM. J. CloppertR. M. Amin “Intelligence-Driven Computer Network Defense Informed by Analysis of Adversary Campaigns and Intrusion Kill Chains”, 6th Annual International Conference on Information Warfare and Security Washington, DC 2011

[14] J. ByresM. FranzD. Miller 2004 The use of attack trees in assessing vulnerabilities in SCADA systems Proceedings of the International Infrastructure Survivability Workshop Lisbon

[15] P. Chee-Wooi TenG. ManimaranC. C. Liu 2010 Cybersecurity for critical infrastructures: Attack and defense modeling IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybernet. Part A 40 2010 853 65 4

[16] B. KordyS. MauwS. RadomirovicP. Schweitzer Attack defense trees The Journal of Logic and Computation 2012

[17] A. RoyD.S. KimK. Trivedi Scalable optimal countermeasure selection using implicit enumeration on attack countermeasure trees Proc. 42nd Int. Conf. on Dependable Systems and Networks Boston, MA 2012

[18] T. SommestadM. EkstedtP. Johnson Cyber security risks assessment with bayesian defense graphs and architectural models Proc. 42nd HICSS ’09 1 10 2009

[19] W. Shaw SCADA system vulnerabilities to cyber attack 2012 Electric Energy online.com Available at http://www.electricenergyonline.com/show_article.php?mag=&article=181

[20] W. Kroeger Critical infrastructures at risk: a need for a new conceptual approach and extended analytical tools Reliab. Eng. Syst. Safety 93 2008 1781 1787

[21] B. Schneier B. Attack trees Dr. Dobb Journal of Software Tools 24 12 1999 21 29

[22] A. BobbioL. EgidiR. Terruggia A methodology for qualitative/quantitative analysis of weighted attack trees IFAC Proceedings Volumes 46 22 2013 133 138

[23] A. BobbioL. EgidiR. Terruggia, E. CiancamerlaM. Minichino Weighted attack trees for the cybersecurity analysis of SCADA systems 3rd International Defense and Homeland Security Simulation Workshop, DHSS 2013, Held at the International Multidisciplinary Modeling and Simulation Multiconference I3M 2013 33 40

[24] US-CERT https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA18-074A

[25] G. DondossolaL.P. CambacedesJ. McDonaldM. EkstedtA. Torkilseng 2011 “Modelling of cyber attacks for assessing smart grid security”, Proceedings Cigré D2 2011 Colloquium Buenos Aires 19-20 October 2011

[26] E-ISAC SANS-ICS ICS Defense Use Case No. 6: Modular ICS Malware August 2017

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