Assessing Cyber-threats Situation for Electric Power Information Networks

The Cyber-threats Situation Assessment (CSA) could show the macro security situation of Electric Power Information Networks (EPIN) in real time. Researching the efficient CSA method will be helpful to enhance the security protection ability of EPIN. A hierarchical CSA method, which is based on both the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Grey Clustering Algorithm (GCA), is proposed and implemented. The Cyber-threats Situation Value (CSV) is used to describe the cyber-threats situation. The higher CSV shows worse security situation, on the contrary, the lower CSV shows the better. In order to determine the weights of all cyber-threats, the AHP is used to design the hierarchical CSA index system that could divide all cyber-threats into the “Strong”, “Medium” and “Weak” 3 grey clustering classes. At the same time, the GCA is used to construct the criteria layer of index system. The key components of CSV could be clearly shown by those above ways. The CSV value is the summation of products, which products are multiplied by the occurrences number of each cyber-threat and its weight. Finally, the experimental results and system normal operation show that this method can dynamic display the macro security situation of EPIN in real time, with a high practical value.