Bulk power provides the energy drawn from the electrical grid to provide light and heat to homes and stores; as well as the ability to freeze food or to watch television. A bulk power system is a large interconnected electrical system made up of generation and transmission facilities and their control systems. Such systems remain, as with anything powered by computers, vulnerable to hacking. Protecting bulk power systems is an under-researched areas, according to Michigan Technological University, a fact not helped by the widespread nature and inherent complexity of most power networks.
According to the lead researcher Professor Chee-Wooi Ten, who has been looking into the vulnerabilities of bulk power systems, the fundamental problem with such systems is a gap between physical equipment and intangible software. This gap extenuates the vulnerability. In particular, developments with power management designed to make out lives easier also provide entry points for hackers. Examples include smart meters in homes, management systems for distributed energy resources like wind and solar production along with instrumentation systems in power plants, substations or control centers.
The research explains how malware like Stuxnet allows hackers to undertake a cyberattack that could result in large power outages. The new research aims to address these concerns through forming a more in-depth understanding of the weaknesses and to shore up security measures.
The research is published in a specialist journal called IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, under the title “Impact Assessment of Hypothesized Cyberattacks on Interconnected Bulk Power Systems.”
