SComm: A Real-Time Mutually Authenticated Secure Communication Framework for Smart Grids

Abstract

Motivated by recent Denial of Service (DoS) attacks at the control center and multiple remote power generation sites of a registered entity in the U.S. power grid, we seek to address the lack of sufficient real-time mutual authentication and secure communication between smart grid components. We introduce SComm, a real-time mutually authenticated secure communication framework that consists of a commitment-based enrolment protocol and a mutually authenticated key establishment protocol by which components can authenticate each other and carry out secure communication to prevent DoS attacks. Our framework applies a Zero-Knowledge Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ZK-ECDH) to establish a unique cryptographic session key for secure communication. We analysed our framework with respect to its security and performance, and the results show that our frame-work enhances the security of components and communication in real-time to efficiently deal with unauthentication and DoS attack. As proof of concept, we apply our framework to mitigate the DoS attacks at the registered entity.