Title: Towards implementing scalable and reconfigurable SCADA security testbed in power system environment

Authors: Qais Saif Qassim; Norziana Jamil; Maslina Daud; Hafizah Che Hasan

Addresses: Institutes of Informatics and Computing in Energy, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia ' Institutes of Informatics and Computing in Energy, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia ' CyberSecurity Malaysia, Selangor DarulEhsan, Malaysia ' CyberSecurity Malaysia, Selangor DarulEhsan, Malaysia

Abstract: The Stuxnet appears to be the very first cyber-attack upon industrial control systems. It has forced cybersecurity providers to put a lot of attention on outdated and obsolete security countermeasures of existing critical infrastructure systems due to the poor protection and security. Investigation of the effect of an attack upon the actual system is neither recommended due to the unintended consequences nor feasible on a replicated system, mainly due to the cost and the effort involved. Therefore, the SCADA cybersecurity researchers mostly rely on developing realistic SCADA testbeds for cybersecurity exercises. With that, this paper serves three goals; first, to present an overview of the electrical power grid SCADA system, as well as to describe the potential vulnerabilities and threats. Second, this paper pinpoints varied testbed research application areas, implementation requirements, and design approaches. Lastly, a scalable and reconfigurable SCADA testbed is proposed for cybersecurity practices.

Keywords: SCADA; cybersecurity; testbed.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2019.098834

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2019 Vol.15 No.2, pp.91 - 120

Received: 06 Apr 2018
Accepted: 16 Oct 2018

Published online: 03 Apr 2019 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article