A Cost-efficient Software Testbed for Cyber-Physical Security in IEC 61850-based Substations

With the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Smart Grids (SGs), the number and types of attacks targeting the Cyber-Physical Security (CPS) of modern energy systems have been increasing drastically in recent times. Hence, in the present paper, a software testbed is designed and implemented in order to study the CPS of IEC 61850-based electrical substations. It is entirely based on (mostly open-source) software simulation, which makes it cost-effective and easy to reproduce. Furthermore, the proposed testbed offers an acceptable level of details/abstraction for both the network and the physical parts as well as the communication between them. First attack scenarios against the communication network of the electrical substations are implemented in this framework with a detailed description of the different steps. Respective results are reported which underpin the potential of the proposed simulation testbed, also for designing respective countermeasures for the CPS of SGs.