Digitization has permeated nearly all aspects of daily life and the power grid is no exception.
Today, sophisticated and highly complex digital systems are used to both monitor and control
the power grid to ensure the safe and reliable supply of electricity. With the advance of the
digital grid, it has become inevitable for critical infrastructure to be connected to a wide area
network (WAN). With this high demand of connectivity, the vulnerability of these critical
infrastructures, such as power substations would be key weaknesses to be exposed by
hackers. If the power grid is successfully compromised by hackers, wide area blackouts and
great economic losses may occur. This is why it is critical to protect the power grid and
substation automation systems (SAS) from cyberthreats.
With respect to digital power grids, cybersecurity requirements may be defined as guidelines
(e.g., NIST), standards (e.g., IEC 62443), or regulations (e.g., NERC-CIP) that cover many
different aspects of organizational, operational, or process security.
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