Characterizations of Vulnerabilities and Countermeasures in Advanced Metering Infrastructure Collectors
Open Access
Author:
Delozier, Adam Johannes
Graduate Program:
Computer Science and Engineering
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
April 06, 2011
Committee Members:
Dr Patrick Mc Daniel, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Dr Patrick Mc Daniel, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Keywords:
smartgrid AMI vulnerabilities security attack trees
Abstract:
Electrical distribution and measurement techniques have been very cumbersome and inefficient for the utility companies for many years. Customers have also been affected by paying fixed rates whether they are using energy during grid downtime or peak hours. By integrating current technology, protocols, and interconnecting measurement devices to the Internet, a utility company can read meters on-demand and generate electricity more efficiently. With a high demand for this technology and a fast-paced production environment, many vendors are rapidly developing products using substandard security implementations with a single point of failure known as the gateway. If compromised, the gateway can disrupt power for regions or cause significant energy theft. In this thesis, we present a collection of vulnerabilities discovered, map each of them to an attack tree to reach our goals of compromising the gateway platform or denial of service, and provide countermeasures to prevent these types of attacks.
