Trading off Latency Against Security in Open Energy Metering Infrastructures

Embedded devices are expected to transform the landscape of networked services in many domains, among them smart homes and smart grid systems. The reliable and optimised operation of smart grids is dependent on reliable data provided by end nodes (e.g. smart meters), and assurance of secure communication across networks. Understanding whether advanced security building blocks have a role to play in forthcoming infrastructures needs a basic understanding of each potential building block with respect to resource usage and impact on timing. In this paper we study the performance penalty of asymmetric cryptography techniques used for protection of wirelessly transmitted data in a prototype smart metering system. The prototype system is built using hardware and software components from “Open Energy Monitor” project using a wireless data link between the metering device and the data collector device. We investigate the use of the Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme (ECIES) in two versions – with standard building blocks and with added Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) support. The use of the ECDSA allows the system to achieve the non-repudiation property. We compare those cryptographic techniques with the Advanced Encryption Standard in Galois Counter Mode (AES-GCM) technique in two versions – with 128 bit and 256 bit keys. Performance is compared in terms of execution time of (1) preparing data, (2) unpacking it, and (3) roundtrip time. We then discuss the implications of the measurements, where the roundtrip time of sending one measurement ranges from 378 ms in case of AES128-GCM to 16.3 sec using ECIES with ECDSA.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Gundars Kalns

Simin Nadjm-Tehrani

Maria Vasilevskaya

Conference

Publication date: August 2016

Publication date (Print): August 2016

Pages: 151-159

Affiliations

[0001]Linköping University

Department of Computer and Information Science

SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/ICS2016.17

SO-VID: 1b884be8-192a-478b-add7-54781c7627d4

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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: 4th International Symposium for ICS & SCADA Cyber Security Research 2016

Conference acronym: ICS-CSR

Conference number: 4

Conference location: Queen’s Belfast University, UK

Conference date: 23 - 25 August 2016

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: 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/ICS2016.17

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

REFERENCES

Certicom Research 2009 Standards for efficient cryptography 1 (SEC 1) 2
Certicom Research 2010 Standards for efficient cryptography 2 (SEC 2) 2
F. M. Cleveland 2008 Cyber security issues for advanced metering infrasttructure (AMI) Power and Energy Society General Meeting -Conversion and Delivery of Electrical Energy in the 21st Century
S. DasY. OhbaM. KandaD. FamolariS. K. Das 2012 August A key management framework for ami networks in smart grid IEEE Communications Magazine 50 8 30 37
M. M. FoudahZ. M. Fadlullah1tN. KatoltR. LuX. Shen 2011 Towards a light-weight message authentication mechanism tailored for smart grid communications Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), 2011 IEEE Conference on
T. GoodM. Benaissa 2008 New Stream Cipher Designs: The eSTREAM Finalists Chapter aSIC Hardware Performance 267 293 Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg
V. GuptaM. MillardS. FungY. ZhuN. GuraH. EberleS. C. Shantz 2005 Sizzle: A standards-based end-to-end security architecture for the embedded internet Pervasive Computing and Communications,2005. PerCom 2005. Third IEEE International Conference on
N. GuraA. PatelA. WanderH. EberleS. C. Shantz 2004 Comparing elliptic curve cryptography and RSA on 8-bit CPUs Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems - CHES 2004 Volume 3156 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science 119 132 Springer Berlin Heidelberg
ICCS-NTUA,AF Mercados EMI 2015 Study on cost benefit analysis of smart metering systems in EU member states final report. Institute of Communication & Computer Systems of the National Technical University of Athens ÅF Mercados EMI
S. KaplantzisY A. Sekercioglu 2012 Security and smart metering European Wireless, 18th European Wireless Conference
D. LakeR. MilitoM. MorrowR. Vargheese 2014 Internet of things: Architectural framework for ehealth security Journal of ICT Vol 3 & 4 301 328
C. Lang-MuhrM. SchrattenholzerP. Tavolato 2015 Multi-layer agent-based simulation of network behaviour in advanced metering infrastructures Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium for ICS & SCADA Cyber Security Research 2015
W. LuanJ. PengM. MarasJ. LoB. Harapnuk 2015 July Smart meter data analytics for distribution network connectivity verification IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 6 4 1964 1971
V. G. MartinezL. H. EncinasC. S. Avila 2010 A survey of the elliptic curve integrated encryption scheme Journal of computer science and engineering 2 2
B. J. Matt 2005 The cost of protection measures in tactical networks Proceedings for the Army Science Conference (24th), Orlando, Florida
S. McLaughlinD. PodkuikoP. McDaniel 2010 Energy theft in the advanced metering infrastructure Critical Information Infrastructures Security, Volume 6027 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science 176 187 Springer Berlin Heidelberg
A. Molina-MarkhamG. DanezisK. FuP. ShenoyD. Irwin 2012 Designing privacy-preserving smart meters with low-cost microcontrollers Financial Cryptography and Data Security, Volume 7397 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science 239 253 Springer Berlin Heidelberg
National Institute of Standards and Technology 2016 Recommendation for key management -part 1: General (revision 4) SP 800 57
Open 2016 Open energy monitor project ext-link-type="uri" xlink: href="http://www.openenergymonitor.org">www.openenergymonitor.org last visited January 2016
Open Meter 2009 D1.1 report on the identification and specification of functional, technical, economical and general requirements of advanced multimetering infrastructure, including security requirements ext-link-type="uri" xlink: href="http://www.openmeter.com">www.openmeter.com
M. RacitiS. Nadjm-Tehrani 2013 Critical Information Infrastructures Security: 7th International Workshop, CRITIS 2012, Lillehammer, Norway, September 17–18, 2012, Revised Selected Papers Chapter Embedded Cyber-Physical Anomaly Detection in Smart Meters 34 45 Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg
The SecFutur project 2010 Deliverable 2.1, documentation of use cases, requirements and success factor indicators ext-link-type="uri" xlink: href="http://www.secfutur.eu/">www.secfutur.eu/content/dam/sit/secfutur/en/publications/Deliverable_D2_1.pdf
V. TudorM. AlmgrenM. Papatriantafilou 2015 Harnessing the unknown in advanced metering infrastructure traffic Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing SAC ’15, New York, NY, USA 2204 2211 ACM

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Certicom Research 2009 Standards for efficient cryptography 1 (SEC 1) 2

[2] Certicom Research 2010 Standards for efficient cryptography 2 (SEC 2) 2

[3] F. M. Cleveland 2008 Cyber security issues for advanced metering infrasttructure (AMI) Power and Energy Society General Meeting -Conversion and Delivery of Electrical Energy in the 21st Century

[4] S. DasY. OhbaM. KandaD. FamolariS. K. Das 2012 August A key management framework for ami networks in smart grid IEEE Communications Magazine 50 8 30 37

[5] M. M. FoudahZ. M. Fadlullah1tN. KatoltR. LuX. Shen 2011 Towards a light-weight message authentication mechanism tailored for smart grid communications Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), 2011 IEEE Conference on

[6] T. GoodM. Benaissa 2008 New Stream Cipher Designs: The eSTREAM Finalists Chapter aSIC Hardware Performance 267 293 Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg

[7] V. GuptaM. MillardS. FungY. ZhuN. GuraH. EberleS. C. Shantz 2005 Sizzle: A standards-based end-to-end security architecture for the embedded internet Pervasive Computing and Communications,2005. PerCom 2005. Third IEEE International Conference on

[8] N. GuraA. PatelA. WanderH. EberleS. C. Shantz 2004 Comparing elliptic curve cryptography and RSA on 8-bit CPUs Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems - CHES 2004 Volume 3156 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science 119 132 Springer Berlin Heidelberg

[9] ICCS-NTUA,AF Mercados EMI 2015 Study on cost benefit analysis of smart metering systems in EU member states final report. Institute of Communication & Computer Systems of the National Technical University of Athens ÅF Mercados EMI

[10] S. KaplantzisY A. Sekercioglu 2012 Security and smart metering European Wireless, 18th European Wireless Conference

[11] D. LakeR. MilitoM. MorrowR. Vargheese 2014 Internet of things: Architectural framework for ehealth security Journal of ICT Vol 3 & 4 301 328

[12] C. Lang-MuhrM. SchrattenholzerP. Tavolato 2015 Multi-layer agent-based simulation of network behaviour in advanced metering infrastructures Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium for ICS & SCADA Cyber Security Research 2015

[13] W. LuanJ. PengM. MarasJ. LoB. Harapnuk 2015 July Smart meter data analytics for distribution network connectivity verification IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 6 4 1964 1971

[14] V. G. MartinezL. H. EncinasC. S. Avila 2010 A survey of the elliptic curve integrated encryption scheme Journal of computer science and engineering 2 2

[15] B. J. Matt 2005 The cost of protection measures in tactical networks Proceedings for the Army Science Conference (24th), Orlando, Florida

[16] S. McLaughlinD. PodkuikoP. McDaniel 2010 Energy theft in the advanced metering infrastructure Critical Information Infrastructures Security, Volume 6027 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science 176 187 Springer Berlin Heidelberg

[17] A. Molina-MarkhamG. DanezisK. FuP. ShenoyD. Irwin 2012 Designing privacy-preserving smart meters with low-cost microcontrollers Financial Cryptography and Data Security, Volume 7397 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science 239 253 Springer Berlin Heidelberg

[18] National Institute of Standards and Technology 2016 Recommendation for key management -part 1: General (revision 4) SP 800 57

[19] Open 2016 Open energy monitor project ext-link-type="uri" xlink: href="http://www.openenergymonitor.org">www.openenergymonitor.org last visited January 2016

[20] Open Meter 2009 D1.1 report on the identification and specification of functional, technical, economical and general requirements of advanced multimetering infrastructure, including security requirements ext-link-type="uri" xlink: href="http://www.openmeter.com">www.openmeter.com

[21] M. RacitiS. Nadjm-Tehrani 2013 Critical Information Infrastructures Security: 7th International Workshop, CRITIS 2012, Lillehammer, Norway, September 17–18, 2012, Revised Selected Papers Chapter Embedded Cyber-Physical Anomaly Detection in Smart Meters 34 45 Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg

[22] The SecFutur project 2010 Deliverable 2.1, documentation of use cases, requirements and success factor indicators ext-link-type="uri" xlink: href="http://www.secfutur.eu/">www.secfutur.eu/content/dam/sit/secfutur/en/publications/Deliverable_D2_1.pdf

[23] V. TudorM. AlmgrenM. Papatriantafilou 2015 Harnessing the unknown in advanced metering infrastructure traffic Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing SAC ’15, New York, NY, USA 2204 2211 ACM

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