Cybersecurity Solution

About

Cybersecurity is an ever-increasing issue in the national grid. Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems to acquire critical data, to inject false information, or to trip system breakers. As the power grid undergoes a transformation with the adoption of new technologies such as demand response, smart meters, and distributed energy resources, it is important to construct the new system with an eye towards cybersecurity. However, the new power grid is not being built from scratch. The gradual introduction of new technologies into the system affords no easy avenue for implementing state-of-the-art system-wide cybersecurity measures that protect the old as well as the new. There exists a potential role for aftermarket “plug-and-play” encryption modules that can interface with a wide variety of power system components. Such a device could encrypt data, such as the state of charge of a battery, the power output of a solar array, and dispatch command to a battery module before the data is sent to the system operator. In order to be implemented on a large scale, such a device must be low cost and low power. Furthermore, the encryption scheme must have a low computational cost to allow real-time communication with minimal delays. This places restrictions on the type of encryption algorithms that can be used. For example, conventional RSA encryption requires too much processing power for a typical microcontroller such as an Arduino Nano. Researchers at the University of Hawaii’s College of Engineering have developed a novel cybersecurity solution (CyberSign). CyberSign authenticates a digital asset (such as IOT devices, an algorithm, blockchain, Token) and provides an encrypted communication channel in the network. This technology presents a novel hybrid encryption solution that combines the best of speed and security. The CyberSign is a pair of algorithmic process uniquely co-created which will be added as a module to any digital asset. Use cases are in large scale deployment of algorithms, authenticating IOT devices, pairing algorithms and devices, as well ad providing an encrypted channel for communication among a network of digital assets. Low computation cost Encryption is low cost Can be used in any Open-source hardware Flexible deployment CyberSign is added in wireframes as SDK Self-maintained Easy to scale End-to-End Encryption for edge-computing applications Plug and play to any network of devices Adopting the security and computation cost Requires no specific hardware to deploy Contains inherent authentication for the edge computing devices or edge algorithms