An Analysis of Smart Grid Attacks and Countermeasures

The threat of malicious attacks against the security of the Smart Grid infrastructure cannot be overlooked. The ever-expanding nature of smart grid user base implies that a larger set of vulnerabilities are exploitable by the adversary class to launch malicious attacks. Extensive research has been conducted to identify various threat types against the smart grid, and to propose counter-measures against these. Work has also been done to measure the significance of threats and how attacks can be perpetrated in a smart grid environment. Through this paper, we categorize these smart grid threats, and how they can transpire into attacks. In particular, we provide five different categories of attack types, and also perform an analysis of the various countermeasures thereof proposed in the literature. Index Terms- countermeasures, cyber-threats, smart grid security.