Secure Communication Infrastructure for Power Grid Synchrophasors
Synchrophasors are a new emerging set of sensors for the nation's Power Grid that hold the promise of significantly-increased reliability. These sensors measure phase angles and time-stamp the measurements with the help of GPS time synchronization capabilities. However, these sensors' true potential can only be realized if the data is shared on a wide scale across the grid. Because critical functions may depend on this data, the data's integrity, authentication, and availability must be assured. Moreover, maintaining the data's confidentiality is important because access to this data may affect market transactions. In this project we will undertake the design and prototype implementation of a secure communication infrastructure for sharing synchrophasor data across the Power Grid.

In order to develop a secure and effective communication infrastructure for synchrophasors several challenges must be addressed. First, the data must be authenticated and its integrity protected using efficient techniques. This problem is akin to authenticating route information in DNSSEC because of the large volumes of frequently generated data. Applying standard digital signatures will add significant overhead in terms of data volume and verifications. Therefore, efficient techniques must be developed. Second, the communication channels through which the data travels must be reliable. While technologies exist for reliable communication, it may be too expensive to deploy these technologies across the Power Grid including the last mile to the synchrophasors. Therefore, tradeoffs need to explored and designs developed that allow parts of the network to be unreliable and yet ensure data availability. Third, the importance of data confidentiality needs to be analyzed and adequate solutions need to be developed that are cost-effective and yet ensure desirable properties.
 
Project Leads
Himanshu Khurana, University of Illinois

Return to Projects list


The National Center for Advanced Secure Systems Research NCASSR) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is a multi-institutional cybersecurity research team. NCASSR focuses basic and applied research necessary to develop next generation information security technologies that address national cybersecurity needs. NCASSR is led by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and supported by funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR).


SELS 0.7 released
Secure Email List Services (SELS) is an open source software for creating and developing secure email list services among user communities.
 
Strong community engagement strengthens cybersecurity research and development
NCASSR-supported exploratory research at NCSA and elsewhere has sparked additional external funding and development opportunities as well as successful deployment and adoption by users ranging from the defense sector to state law enforcement to the utilities industry.
 
NCASSR Collaborator Goes To Washington
Carl Gunter, a professor in the University of Illinois Department of Computer Science and a project lead on NCASSR-supported work involving adaptive, secure messaging, recently spoke to an audience of congressional staffers and lobbyists on Capitol Hill regarding ways to address a variety of critical cybersecurity issues in areas such as healthcare and energy distribution.