ISAAC: The Idaho CPS Smart Grid Cybersecurity Testbed

The landscape of cyber and other threats to Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), such as the Power Grid, is growing rapidly. Realistic and reconfigurable testbeds are needed to be able to develop, test, improve, and deploy practical cybersecurity solutions for CPS. We introduce the design of ISAAC, the Idaho CPS Smart Grid Cybersecurity Testbed. ISAAC is a cross-domain, distributed, and reconfigurable testbed, which emulates a realistic power utility and provides researchers with the tools needed to develop and test integrated cybersecurity solutions. Some components of ISAAC are fully functional, with ongoing research projects utilizing the functional components. When fully developed, the capabilities of ISAAC will include: 1) Multiple emulated power utility substations and control networks; 2) Emulating wide-area power transmission and distribution systems, 3) Emulated SCADA control centers, 4) Advanced visualization and cyber-analytics, including machine learning. ISAAC will enable the development, testing, evaluation, and validation of holistic cyber-physical security approaches for cyber physical systems and the Smart Grid. We hope that our endeavor, ISAAC, will help further the boundaries of CPS research and education.