IEEE CyberSecurity Report: Building Code for Power System Software Security

August 4, 2017

In November 2016, IEEE Smart Grid was proud to host a workshop with IEEE Cyber Security Initiative and IEEE Power & Energy Society, with participation from UIUC’s Information Trust Institute entitled the IEEE Invitational Workshop to Create a Building Code for Building Code for Power System Software Security: (BC)2 Power at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign .

The purpose of the workshop was (1) to establish an initial consensus among industry and academic participants on the appropriate components of a “building code” that would be appropriate to reduce significantly the vulnerability of cyber components of electric grids to malicious attacks, and (2) to establish a research agenda for the creation of evidence that could justify the inclusion of additional elements in such a code.

Both the attractiveness of power systems as targets of cyberattack and their vulnerability to remote attack via digital networks has been made clear by recent world events. While policy makers seek means to deter such attacks politically, surely the most effective way to reduce their attractiveness as targets is to reduce their vulnerability to such attacks. The results of the workshop presented here have the objective of reducing the vulnerability of future power systems to remote attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in the code – software or firmware – that controls their operation.

Please feel free to read the output report from the workshop entitled "Building Code for Power System Software Security" authored by Carl E. Landwehr and Alfonso Valdes.

Click here to view the report.