Research results, Research projects

Protecting Electric Power and Energy Systems (EPES) from disruptions posed by increased cyber-physical threats is imperative considering the critical nature of these infrastructures. Additionally, protection of private and sensitive information of consumers is essential to incentivize their participation in the digitalization and decarbonization of the power system.

This is precisely the ambition of the CyberSEAS project, which aims to improve the resilience of energy supply chains, protecting them from disruptions that exploit the enhanced interactions and extended involvement models of stakeholders and consumers in complex attack scenarios, characterized by the presence of legacy systems and the increasing connectivity of data feeds. The project has 3 strategic objectives:

1. countering the cyber risks related to highest impact attacks against EPES
2. protecting consumers against personal data breaches and attacks
3. increasing the security of the Energy Common Data Space.

Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Information Technology FIT (Fraunhofer FIT) is a member of the diverse CyberSEAS consortium, which consists of partners from industry and research. Leveraging its interdisciplinary expertise, Fraunhofer FIT is making significant contributions to the project in several areas. Two of the main contributions of Fraunhofer FIT are the validation of tools in its Testing Lab and the development of a Cybersecurity Playbook Management Tool.

The Cybersecurity tools for intrusion detection and attack prediction were tested in the Fraunhofer FIT's cyber-physical test laboratory, which the institute operates in close cooperation with RWTH Aachen University. The Fraunhofer-RWTH cyber-physical testing laboratory is a safe environment where an integrated testing of cyber-resilience solutions for EPES can be performed. The testing environment is especially crucial for testing tools in attack scenarios, which would result in the disruption of operation of real power grids. This laboratory has a unique combination of IT, Operational Technology and real power equipment at 1:1 scale. Tests conducted in the laboratory for selected CyberSEAS solutions have demonstrated their effectiveness in mitigating the impact of cyberattacks on the power grid, they also highlighted the need for training and awareness programs for power grid operators. Equipping operators with the knowledge and skills to respond proactively to cyberattacks is crucial for a resilient power grid.

Cybersecurity playbooks provide operators comprehensive step-by-step guidance to handle cybersecurity incidents in a consistent fashion. In the CyberSEAS project, Fraunhofer FIT continued the development of its Playbook Management Tool, which facilitates collaboration and information sharing among stakeholders. The tool enables the creation and maintenance of cybersecurity playbooks in standardized formats like CACAO (Collaborative Automated Course of Action Operations), allows to visualize playbooks in BPMN format, offers basic sanitization of playbooks, and provides connectors for exporting and sharing them via MISP or Apache Kafka. The diverse backgrounds and rich expertise of the CyberSEAS consortium members allowed Fraunhofer FIT to identify a wide range of requirements relevant to different stakeholder groups. This ensured that the development of the tool took the different perspectives into account. The Playbook Management Tool has been validated in one of the CyberSEAS pilots, and the validation in another one is currently in preparation.

For further information about the CyberSEAS project, please visit the project website: https://cyberseas.eu. More about Fraunhofer FIT’s research in enhancing the resilience of critical infrastructure from emerging cyber threats at https://www.fit.fraunhofer.de.

Funding note: The CyberSEAS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101020560.