I-Corps: Cybersecurity Solution for Collecting, Storing, and Using Substation Relay Settings Data

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为美国电力公用事业行业提供一种新的能力，即(1)提高系统可靠性，(2)以新的方式将网络和物理系统分析联系起来。电网的可靠、弹性和安全运行是至关重要的国家利益，是经济活力、高生活水平和健康/福利的基础。电网是有史以来最复杂的系统之一，容易受到极端天气、自然灾害、犯罪行为和敌对攻击的影响。它有大约3100家发电、输电和/或配电供应商，运营着7万多个高压变电站。每个变电站都有数十个继电器，用于打开和关闭控制潮流的断路器。系统规划人员需要准确、最新的继电保护设置来填充计算机模拟，以形成可靠的系统设计和操作。通常，系统保护人员维护特定于其需求的继电保护整定数据库。系统规划人员经常发现这些数据库不适合他们的需求--为规划模拟提取/调整所需的数据子集是一项人工、耗时巨大的工作。系统操作员还有义务在收集、存储和使用期间保护继电保护设置数据，以防止犯罪分子或其他敌对行为者的利用。该i-Corps项目旨在为电力系统操作员提供一种新的能力，以简化/协调他们为系统研究/分析收集、存储、使用和保护继电保护数据的工作。这一新功能还将使电力提供商能够将他们的物理系统模拟结果和网络地图联系起来--通过以前无法实现的新的协同效应，打开安全工作优先顺序的大门。研究目标有两个方面。首先，该项目寻求提供集成的端到端功能，从而能够自动收集继电器设置数据、集中存储，并为系统分析人员提供自动定制的数据。实体产品将是一个独立的、专门构建的计算机系统，它包含多种基本功能：数据库、FTP服务器、网络服务器、解析器和应用程序专用软件。其次，它的设想是扩展功能，以利用最近推出的支持软件保护扩展(SGX)的CPU，这些CPU为安全处理敏感数据提供加密的存储空间。专门建造的计算机连接SGX功能的CPU将为模拟电力系统行为的联网计算机系统提供新的安全级别。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide a new capability to the U.S. electric utility industry that (1) enhances system reliability and (2) enables linking cyber and physical system analyses in new ways. The power grid's reliable, resilient, and secure operation is a vital national interest - underpinning economic vitality, high living standards, and health/welfare. The power grid, one of the most complex systems ever built, is vulnerable to extreme weather, natural disasters, criminal acts, and hostile attacks. It has some 3,100 providers generating, transmitting, and/or distributing power, who operate more 70,000 high-voltage sub-stations. Each substation has tens of relays that open and close breakers - controlling power flows. System planning staffs require accurate, up-to-date relay settings to populate computer simulations that shape reliable system design and operation. Typically, system protection staffs maintain relay settings databases specific to their needs. System planning staffs often find these databases are ill-suited for their needs - extracting/adapting the needed data subsets for planning simulations is a manual, man-hour intense effort. The system operator is also obligated to protect relay settings data during collection, storage, and use to prevent exploitation by criminals or other hostile actors.This I-Corps project seeks to provide power system operators a new capability to streamline/harmonize their efforts to collect, store, use, and secure relay data for system studies/analysis. This new capability will also enable power providers to link their physical system simulation results and cyber network maps - opening the door to security effort prioritization with new, previously unachievable, synergy. The research objectives are two-fold. First, the project seeks to provide an integrated, end-to-end capability enabling automated relay settings data collection, central storage, and automated, tailored data provision to system analysts. The physical product will be a standalone, purpose-built computer system that incorporates multiple essential functions: database, FTP server, webserver, parser, and application-specific software. Second, it is envisioned to expand the capabilities to leverage recently introduced Software Guard Extension (SGX)-enabled CPUs, which provide encrypted memory space for securely processing sensitive data. The purpose-built computer linking SGX-enabled CPUs will provide a new level of security on networked computer systems simulating power system behaviors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.