Cyber Security in Smart Grid: Challenges and Solutions

The conventional power grid has gone into transition and converted into what is called “smart grid The smart grid helps to bring reliability, monitoring, controllability, and efficiency. It provides a bidirectional flow of energy and communication. The major element of the smart grid is the communication networks. The smart grid system is comprised of different types of smart devices and heterogeneous networks. These communication networks are prone to many kinds of attacks such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), Man In The Middle (MITM) and replay attacks. As a result, the smart grid is becoming a major target for cybercriminals. In this paper, the vulnerabilities and security issues exist in the smart grid are presented. Finally, the solutions for mitigating the attacks are discussed. It provides an overview of security issues present in the communication system in the smart grid. With this paper, readers can gain more understanding of security issues present in the smart grid communication systems, networks, and devices.