Cybersecurity in maritime power systems: A comprehensive review of cyber threats and mitigation techniques

Abstract

Integration of communication networks and Shipboard Microgrids (SHMGs) brings significant benefits in the advanced control, monitoring, and remote diagnostics, particularly facilitating the data exchange between various generation components, such as sustainable energy resources, energy storage systems, and connected loads. However, the utilization of communication technologies brings serious cyber-security challenges that highly threaten maritime power systems from a security and stability perspective. This paper aims to present a comprehensive review of cybersecurity issues in marine power systems. Vulnerable points of the system to cyber-attacks, such as phasor measurement units and area control error channels are elaborated. Prevalent attacks in the load frequency control, such as denial of service and false data injection, covert attacks, and reply attacks are discussed. Recent detection/mitigation mechanisms in the cybersecurity field to tackle various cyber-attacks have been introduced. In the detection part, various observers, such as the Kalman filter, Luenberger observer, and machine learning algorithms are studied. In the mitigation mechanism, various methodologies, such as active disturbance rejection control and model predictive control are presented. This survey reviews the recent cyber-security developments and challenges in SHMG, and it is helpful for contemporary researchers in the field of cybersecurity in maritime power systems.