Cyber Physical Security Systems for Smart Grid

Dr. Manimaran Govindarasu Iowa State University
Moderated by Milos Manic
11:30 a.m.- 12:15 p.m. EST | Friday, March 12, 2021

Modern power grid, called the smart grid, is a complex cyber-physical system (CPS) that forms the lifeline of our society. The grid’s reliable, secure, and resilient operation is of paramount importance to national security and economic well-being. In recent years, there has been a growing trend of cyber-attacks, both in number and sophistication, targeting critical infrastructures around the globe. This evolving threat landscape underscores the importance and urgency of cybersecurity RandD for critical infrastructures, such as the smart grid. This talk first provides an overview of smart grid’s cybersecurity challenges. Then, it presents a holistic cybersecurity framework illustrating the significance of CPS security solutions for two key control center applications: Automatic Generation Control and wide-area protection. Finally, the talk highlights the importance of testbed-based modeling and evaluation for realistic attack-defense experimentations and grid exercises.

Bio: Dr. Manimaran Govindarasu currently holds the title of Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and Mehl Professor of Computer Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. His research experience includes CPS security for the smart grid, Internet security, and real- time systems. He has co-authored ~200 peer-reviewed research publications, and has presented many invited talks and tutorials at reputed IEEE conferences, and delivered over a dozen industry training sessions on smart grid cybersecurity. He serves as the Chair of Cybersecurity Working Group within IEEE Power and Energy Society. He has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid and IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, and served as a Guest Co-Editor for many flagship IEEE publications. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. His research is currently funded by NSF and DOE.