Abstract
Cyber hygiene is a relatively new paradigm premised on the idea that organizations and stakeholders are able to achieve additional robustness and overall cybersecurity strength by implementing and following sound security practices. It is a preventive approach entailing high organizational culture and education for information cybersecurity to enhance resilience and protect sensitive data. In an attempt to achieve high resilience of Smart Grids against negative impacts caused by different types of common, predictable but also uncommon, unexpected, and uncertain threats and keep entities safe, the Secure and PrivatE smArt gRid (SPEAR) Horizon 2020 project has created an organization-wide cyber hygiene policy and developed a Cyber Hygiene Maturity assessment Framework (CHMF). This article presents the assessment framework for evaluating Cyber Hygiene Level (CHL) in relation to the Smart Grids. Complementary to the SPEAR Cyber Hygiene Maturity Model (CHMM), we propose a self-assessment methodology based on a questionnaire for Smart Grid cyber hygiene practices evaluation. The result of the assessment can be used as a cyber-health check to define countermeasures and to reapprove cyber hygiene rules and security standards and specifications adopted by the Smart Grid operator organization. The proposed methodology is one example of a resilient approach to cybersecurity. It can be applied for the assessment of the CHL of Smart Grids operating organizations with respect to a number of recommended good practices in cyber hygiene.
Highlights
The growth of Smart Grids is causing a complex transformation of electricity generation and distribution into new flexible integrated transmission and distribution systems
SPEAR promotes the use of the Smart Grid cyber hygiene maturity model (CHMM) to help end-users (Smart Grid operator organizations) understand quantitatively where they are in terms of cyber hygiene posture and, based on their mission and goals, where they want to be
The specificities of the SPEAR CHMM reside in the fact that it is tailored to the needs of Smart Grids systems and organizations operating them and in the fact that it fully aligns with SPEAR solution methodologies (e.g., SPEAR Forensics Framework) and tools (e.g., SPEAR Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM)) to support some of the CH best practices and recommendations promoted in the model
Summary
The growth of Smart Grids is causing a complex transformation of electricity generation and distribution into new flexible integrated transmission and distribution systems. The idea of innovative transformation of the power industry involves the development and implementation of distributed, self-regulating energy systems, which include generating sources and backbone and separate networks where all types of consumers are served by the intelligent network in real time. Intensive information exchange makes the Smart Grids vulnerable to a number of malicious threats related to telecommunications and network systems. This jeopardizes the reliable and safe operation and is touted as the key objective of the Smart Grid. As the energy system is one of the main key public infrastructures, damage to any component of the network can lead to huge losses in terms of the country’s economy and social welfare
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