Dynamic Risk Assessment and Certification in the Power Grid: A Collaborative Approach

The digitisation of the typical electrical grid introduces valuable services, such as pervasive control, remote monitoring and self-healing. However, despite the benefits, cybersecurity and privacy issues can result in devastating effects or even fatal accidents, given the interdependence between the energy sector and other critical infrastructures. Large-scale cyber attacks, such as Indostroyer and DragonFly have already demonstrated the weaknesses of the current electrical grid with disastrous consequences. Based on the aforementioned remarks, both academia and industry have already designed various cybersecurity standards, such as IEC 62351. However, dynamic risk assessment and certification remain crucial aspects, given the sensitive nature of the electrical grid. On the one hand, dynamic risk assessment intends to re-compute the risk value of the affected assets and their relationships in a dynamic manner based on the relevant security events and alarms. On the other hand, based on the certification process, new approach for the dynamic management of the security need to be defined in order to provide adaptive reaction to new threats. This paper presents a combined approach, showing how both aspects can be applied in a collaborative manner in the smart electrical grid.