Award Abstract # 1446831
CPS: Synergy: High-Fidelity, Scalable, Open-Access Cyber Security Testbed for Accelerating Smart Grid Innovations and Deployments

NSF Org: CNS
Division Of Computer and Network Systems
Recipient: IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Initial Amendment Date: March 17, 2015
Latest Amendment Date: March 7, 2019
Award Number: 1446831
Award Instrument: Cooperative Agreement
Program Manager: David Corman
CNS
 Division Of Computer and Network Systems
CSE
 Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date: March 1, 2015
End Date: February 29, 2020 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $998,900.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $998,900.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2015 = $338,394.00
FY 2016 = $351,303.00

FY 2017 = $309,203.00
History of Investigator:
  • Manimaran Govindarasu (Principal Investigator)
    gmani@iastate.edu
  • Douglas Jacobson (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Venkataramana Ajjarapu (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Iowa State University
1350 BEARDSHEAR HALL
AMES
IA  US  50011-2103
(515)294-5225
Sponsor Congressional District: 04
Primary Place of Performance: Iowa State University
3227 Coover Hall, Iowa State Uni
Ames
IA  US  50011-2021
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
04
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): DQDBM7FGJPC5
Parent UEI: DQDBM7FGJPC5
NSF Program(s): CPS-Cyber-Physical Systems,
Cybersecurity Innovation,
Reimbursable/Reserved Out-year
Primary Program Source: 01001516DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01001516RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001617RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001718RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 7434, 7918, 8235, 8237, 9150
Program Element Code(s): 791800, 802700, 917900
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.070

ABSTRACT

The electric power grid is a complex cyber-physical system (CPS) that forms the lifeline of modern society. Cybersecurity and resiliency of the power grid is of paramount importance to national security and economic well-being. CPS security testbeds are enabling technologies that provide realistic experimental platforms for the evaluation and validation of security technologies within controlled environments, and they also enable the exploration of robust security solutions.

The project has two objectives: (a) to develop innovative architectures, abstractions, models, and algorithms for large-scale CPS security testbeds; and (b) to design and implement a high-fidelity, scalable, open-access CPS security testbed for the smart grid, and to conduct research experimentation. The testbed integrates appropriate cyber-control-physical hardware/software components, models, and algorithms in a modular design that enables federation of smaller testbeds to form a large-scale virtual experimental environment. The use cases for the testbed include vulnerability assessment, risk assessment, risk mitigation studies, and attack-defense exercises. The project also aims to develop standardized datasets, models, libraries, and use cases, and make the testbed available to a broader research community through an open-, remote-access model by leveraging collaboration from academic and industry partners.

Besides contributing to research and technology that will enable a future electric power grid that is secure and resilient, this project develops and disseminates innovative curriculum modules including CPS Cyber Defense Competitions (CPS-CDC) for imparting security knowledge to students via an inquiry-based learning paradigm. The project also mentors students, including underrepresented minorities, in thesis work and Capstone projects, and exposes high-school students to cybersecurity concepts via testbed demonstrations.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 22)
A. Ashok, P. Wang, M. Brown, and M. Govindarasu "Experimental evaluation of cyber attacks on Automatic Generation Control using a CPS Security Testbed" IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) General Meeting , 2015
A. Ashok, S. Krishnaswamy, M. Govindarasu "PowerCyber: A Remotely Accessible Testbed for Cyber Physical Security of the Smart Grid" IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technology (ISGT) Symposium , 2016 10.1109/ISGT.2016.7781277
Aditya Ashok, Manimaran Govindarasu, and Jianhui Wang "Cyber-Physical Attack-Resilient Wide-Area Monitoring, Protection, and Control for the Power Grid" Proceedings of the IEEE , v.105 , 2017 , p.1389 10.1109/JPROC.2017.2686394
Aditya Ashok, Manimaran Govindarasu, and Venkataramana Ajjarapu "Attack-resilient measurement design methodology for State Estimation to increase robustness against cyber attacks" IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) General Meeting , 2016 10.1109/PESGM.2016.7741979
Aditya Ashok, Manimaran Govindarasu, and Venkataramana Ajjarapu "Online Detection of Stealthy False Data Injection Attacks in Power System State Estimation" IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (online version available, 2016) , 2016 10.1109/TSG.2016.2596298
Aditya Ashok; Siddharth Sridhar; A. David McKinnon; Pengyuan Wang; Manimaran Govindarasu "Testbed-based performance evaluation of Attack Resilient Control for AGC" IEEE Resilient Week , 2016 10.1109/RWEEK.2016.7
Aswin Chidambaram Pappa, Aditya Ashok and Manimaran Govindarasu "Moving Target Defense for Securing Smart Grid Communications: Architecture, Implementation & Evaluation" IEEE Innovative Smart Grid Technology (ISGT) Symposium , 2017 , p.1 10.1109/ISGT.2017.8085954
G. Ravikumar and M. Govindarasu "Anomaly Detection and Mitigation for Wide-Area Damping Control using Machine Learning" IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (Early Access) , 2020 , p.1 10.1109/TSG.2020.2995313
G. Ravikumar, A. Nicklaus and M. Govindarasu "Cyber-Physical Smart Light Control System Integration with Smart Grid using Zigbee" IEEE Power & Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (ISGT) , 2020 10.1109/ISGT45199.2020.9087775
G. Ravikumar, B. Hyder and M. Govindarasu "Efficient Modeling of HIL Multi-Grid System for Scalability & Concurrency in CPS Security Testbed" North American Power Symposium (NAPS) , 2019 10.1109/NAPS46351.2019.9000259
Jacob Ulrich, Jacob Drahos, and Manimaran Govindarasu "A symmetric address translation approach for a network layer moving target defense to secure power grid networks" Resilience Week (RWS) , 2017 , p.163 10.1109/RWEEK.2017.8088667
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 22)

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

The outcomes of this NSF CPS project include the following: (i) Development of innovative testbed architecture, with suitable abstractions and modularity, for large-scale realistic CPS security testbeds for the smart grid; (ii) Designed, implemented, and deployed a high- fidelity, scalable, remote-access testbed for research experimentation; (Iii) Novel utilization of the testbed to analyze and quantify impacts of cyber attacks, including coordinated attacks, for critical Wide-area Monitoring, Protection, and Control (WAMPAC) applications of the smart grid; (iv) Evaluated the effectiveness of anomaly detection and mitigation algorithms (cyber, physical, and cyber-physical) on the testbed for critical WAMPAC applications, such as remedial action scheme, automatic generation control, and wide-area damping control; (v) Conceptualized and piloted a NERC’s GridEx like studies considering dynamic, evolving attack scenarios leveraging the CPS security testbed;  (vi) Conducted security evaluations of the software platforms and protocols, that are found within the electric power grid, and responsibly disseminating the results to professional community and utility industry; (vii) Provided remote access capability to the testbed infrastructure - with sample datasets, models, and use-cases - to benefit a broader community of academic and industry researchers (15+ user organizations, 25+ use-cases); (viii) Conducted testbed-based cybersecurity training sessions (12+ instances -- at NERC's GridSec Conference, for multiple utilities in the State of Iowa, for Florida Reliability Coordinating Council, for Idaho Power Company) focusing on attack-defense techniques and tools for utility industry, benefitting 350+ professionals; (ix) Hosted a cybersecurity workshop, in partnership with USAID and NARUC, for Black Sea countries utility regulatory professionals, and hosted another workshop for utility industry (in the state of Iowa) in partnership with Iowa State University's Electric Power Research Center (EPRC); (x) Mentored approximately 10 graduate research assistants in the area of CPS security for smart grid and contributed to the cybersecurity workforce; (xi) Developed and taught a graduate level course on CPS security for smart grid (taught 5 instances throughout this project), which contributed to the education and workforce development in this area; (xii) The developed CPS security testbed has become an institutional infrastructure at ISU for R&D, educational, and training programs; (xiii) Disseminated the research results and outcomes via research publications in major IEEE journals and conferences, NSF CPS PI Meetings, Department Homeland Security (DHS) PI Meetings, NSF CPS VO, and NSF-sponsored workshops; (xiv) Broader impacts of this research outcomes in other CPS-based critical infrastructure systems -- key outcomes include: the CPS security research experimentation methodology, testbed architectures and abstractions, the remote-access technology to the testbed, cyber attack techniques and tools, cyber defense techniques and tools, and the testbed-based educational and training platform. 


Last Modified: 09/16/2020
Modified by: Manimaran Govindarasu

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