The state of a substation is continuously measured for monitoring, control and protection purposes, using synchrophasor measurements. The IEC 61850 standard defines communication protocols for electrical substations, including synchrophasor measurement transmission. However, IEC 61850 does not properly address cyber security, leaving this critical infrastructure highly vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Work performed
Developed mechanism and prototype for delayed integrity check for synchrophasor measurements. PMU traffic is sent unmodified as before, but a special device makes a local copy of each message and calculates a Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) which is sent separately. Another unit collects and checks HMAC value.
Significant results
Developed a mechanism for delayed integrity check for synchrophasor measurements, and validated a prototype.
Impact for distribution system innovation
Protection of synchrophasor data and other highly time-sensitive traffic.
