Efficient Signature Scheme for Delivering Authentic Control Commands in the Smart Grid

Abstract

Enabling secure delivery of control commands and alert messages is one of the critical requirements of smart grid communications. If adversaries were to gain access, they could alter or send malicious commands from the Control Center (CC), intended to the Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) and Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). These malicious commands could disrupt power system operations and cause damage to power devices. In this paper, we propose an efficient signature scheme for ensuring the delivery of only legitimate commands over the communication network. We propose efficient signatures using hash that are sent by the CC along with commands for protecting command alteration over the network, which also provide sender authenticity by verifying the signatures at the RTU/IED. By using the proposed scheme, both random and malicious commands sent by an adversary are discarded. The security analysis shows that the scheme is secure against replay, repudiation and impersonation attacks. The performance evaluation and prototype simulation show that our signature scheme using SHA1, SHA256 and SHA384 is feasible, and can be used for communications from the CC to the field.