Comprehensively Analyzing the Impact of Cyberattacks on Power Grids

TL;DR

This paper introduces WATTSON, a comprehensive simulation environment for analyzing cyberattacks on power grids, capturing their effects on both communication and physical systems to improve understanding and defense strategies.

Contribution

The paper presents WATTSON, a scalable, validated environment for reproducing and analyzing cyberattacks on power grids, bridging the gap between isolated physical or communication asset studies.

Findings

WATTSON accurately models real-world power grid responses.

Authentic cyberattacks like Industroyer demonstrate ripple effects on physical and communication systems.

Communication vulnerabilities significantly impact complex cyber-physical processes.

Abstract

The increasing digitalization of power grids and especially the shift towards IP-based communication drastically increase the susceptibility to cyberattacks, potentially leading to blackouts and physical damage. Understanding the involved risks, the interplay of communication and physical assets, and the effects of cyberattacks are paramount for the uninterrupted operation of this critical infrastructure. However, as the impact of cyberattacks cannot be researched in real-world power grids, current efforts tend to focus on analyzing isolated aspects at small scales, often covering only either physical or communication assets. To fill this gap, we present WATTSON, a comprehensive research environment that facilitates reproducing, implementing, and analyzing cyberattacks against power grids and, in particular, their impact on both communication and physical processes. We validate WATTSON's accuracy against a physical testbed and show its scalability to realistic power grid sizes. We then perform authentic cyberattacks, such as Industroyer, within the environment and study their impact on the power grid's energy and communication side. Besides known vulnerabilities, our results reveal the ripple effects of susceptible communication on complex cyber-physical processes and thus lay the foundation for effective countermeasures.