A Novel Efficient and Secure Privacy-Preserving Scheme for Smart Grid Based on HECC

Smart Grid (SG) is an electricity distribution network that monitors energy flow from the point of generation to its final location. The SG can save electricity usage and improve service quality at the same time. However, there are several security issues associated with communication between SG nodes. For example, information breakout is a frequent security problem that arises during communication between two Smart Meters (SMs). Existing studies resolve the issue of information breakout by using numerous cryptographic techniques such as Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Advanced Encryption Standard, RSA, and Bilinear Pairing. Moreover, these techniques suffer due to their greater communication overhead and computational costs because of the enormous size of the parameters and key space. In this study, we proposed a novel, efficient, and privacy-preserving approach for secure data transferring between entities in the SG network to protect against adversaries’ attacks by using minimal resources. Our proposed system uses the standard key size of Hyper Elliptic Curve Cryptography (HECC) along with the Signcryption technique for secure communication among the SM, aggregator nodes, and distribution substation to protect sensitive information. The proposed technique ensures safe communication between SG entities while also reducing communication and computational expenses by using shorter key sizes along with other parameters of HECC. Furthermore, we employ the popular simulation program Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) to verify the security aspects of our suggested approach. Moreover, our proposed technique fulfills essential security characteristics like confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, authorization, non-repudiation, and unforgeability.