An Overview About Detection of Cyber-Attacks on Power SCADA Systems

The power SCADA systems have been undergoing several upgrades over the years. At first, these systems were based only on isolated processes, without the need to connect in a global network, such as the Internet. In recent years, the access to such an open network has been critical for the SCADA systems, due to the need for data exchange across large areas, between geographically remote industrial plants, or even because of the demand for remote applications. Despite the SCADA systems have advantages by being now connected to a network such as the Internet, several problems can arise due to that. For example, such a connection makes it possible for an intruder to compromise the whole system. SCADA systems are essential in the new concept of smart grids and are widely used in the monitoring and control of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) based on photovoltaics. In that context, this paper presents an overview of the main attacks found and documented in the literature, as well as possible techniques to detect such attacks.