A Survey of ICT Vulnerabilities of Power Systems and Relevant Defense Methodologies

Abstract

Power infrastructure vulnerabilities are growing due to liberalization of national markets, growing demand, and hectic transactions among national, regional, and local systems, resulting in an infrastructure that is more complex and difficult to manage. While innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) offer a chance to better cope with this increased complexity, such technologies may also increase the exposure of the entire infrastructure to accidental failures and malicious threats. These threats arise from ever increasing interdependencies between the physical power grid and the information infrastructure used to protect, control, and manage the power grid. This paper presents the results of a survey widely disseminated throughout both research and industrial communities in the European Union (EU). The results show which areas in power systems are seen as critical and/or vulnerable in their relationship with ICT.