Preventing unauthorized islanding: cyber-threat analysis

Intelligent software agents offer great potential in aiding the operation of electric power grids. These agents are networked applications that could be vulnerable to cyber attacks. Our goal is to design algorithms to detect or prevent such attacks. Before delving into this particular type of application, cyber attacks in general are filtered to develop a taxonomy of the types of threat that can occur. Any applications executing on a network have possible vulnerabilities that can be exploited by system hackers. Developing security solutions is an ongoing arms race between security professionals and hackers. Attack methods are generally unique to the application or system that are targeting, but underlying these strategies are common techniques. Although the purposes or consequences of attacks varies and are usually particular to the domain, the classes of consequences are limited. The national vulnerability database maintains reported vulnerabilities from industry, the private sector and government. By selecting a sampling of this vast database, we have formulated attack strategy categories and consequence categories. With these categories, a concise dissection of these specific type reports may be possible and an organized understanding of the vulnerabilities of networked applications results so threat prevention and detection algorithm can be developed