The result of the collaboration between RSE and the University of Eastern Piedmont, the article “SecuriDN: A Modeling Tool Supporting the Early Detection of Cyberattacks to Smart Energy Systems” has been published in the Special Issue “Model Predictive Control-Based Approach for Microgrids” of the open access journal “MDPI Energies”.

Edited by Giovanna Dondossola and Roberta Terruggia of the Transmission and Distribution Technologies (TTD) Department of RSE, the article delves into SecuriDN, a modeling tool that supports the early detection of cyberattacks on energy systems.

Over the past decades, electricity infrastructure has rapidly evolved from a unidirectional “producer-to-consumer” model to a more complex scenario where distributed resources can be both producers’ and consumers’. Managing energy flows in this heterogeneous network environment involves increased information exchange and thus requires high connectivity as far as devices and control logic are concerned. As a result, the surface exposed to cyberattacks is large, making the entire system potentially vulnerable to adversarial activities. Cyberattacks on these critical systems can have severe consequences and put national stability at risk.

The main objective of the study is to enable early detection of threats, in order to discover adversarial activities in their early stages and possibly implement mitigation actions to prevent any damage to assets. For this reason, a modular platform has been developed, whose objective is to offer methodological and practical support to cybersecurity analysts in risk assessment.