Smart Grid & Smart Cities
From energy saving to mobility, waste management, security and health, new solutions are transforming our territories into sustainable, intelligent and connected spaces.
Smart Cities rely on various technological solutions and advances to improve the quality of urban services, offer new services to users, reduce its costs and promote sustainable development. The smart city is at the heart of social and urban interconnectivity with direct impacts on the way of life with the development of fully automated buildings (smart building, connected home and home automation solutions), on the infrastructures (with smart energy storage), on the information systems and therefore on the data collected, up to making possible the intelligent management of traffic or the development of new means of transportation.
On the same pattern, Smart Grids are electrical grids that are partnered with new communication and information technologies in order to provide equilibrium between electricity supply and demand at any moment and provide safe, competitive and durable electricity to consumers.
Having the electrical network linked to new information technologies increases the number of contact points with the network; which potentially exposes energy supply network to modern threats that target information systems such as data theft, system failures, service denial, data leaks. Smart Grids are considered as critical infrastructures and need to be protected accordingly.
The specific security challenges for Smart Grid & Smart City
As with any connected device, a single unprotected one can be a threat to the entire network. A vulnerability in one sensor at the heart of the urban interconnection could put the entire security of smart city at risk.
Smart energy systems and Smart City introduce new cybersecurity threats among which data management and processing and especially personal data is a major challenge.
Smart Grid & Smart City Security Solutions
Secure-IC’s PESC approach is built on a portfolio of security products and services that, when combined, create a deep security by design that protects the very foundation of your industry.
- SecuryzrTMiSE for Smart Grid & Smart City compliant with IEC 62443 for secure remote connectivity and management with TLS/secure protocol requirements and firmware stacks.
- SecuryzrTM full software for legacy/already installed devices.
- ID Management for all devices.
- SecuryzrTM Server for lifecycle management, device onboarding and offboarding, secure firmware update over the air.
- LaboryzrTM: Security Evaluation: Make sure that there are no threats to the smart electrical grid.
- Hardware Trojans detection
- Reverse Engineering protection verification.
- Hardware and software penetration testing.
- LaboryzrTM includes 3 tools:
- AnalyzrTM: evaluation tool to validate the security level of real physical chip/boards after foundry tape-out that enables ISO/IEC 17825, 20085
- VirtualyzrTM: an EDA Tool to assess the security design verification at all design levels (RTL, Post-Synthesis, Place & Route and Layout)
It is possible to simulate potential attacks in a network to protect against them. - CatalyzrTM, software tool to evaluate software code vulnerability with static and dynamic analysis
- Expertyzr TM is Secure-IC’s expertise service, it constitutes of a number of services and trainings that could bring your business to the next level in terms of Security such as:
- Evaluation as a Service for legacy devices and new devices
- Support to certification
- Security training (on IEC 62443 and more)
- Embedded Security Watch (asset models for PLC, SCADA, Critical Infrastructures, etc.)
Standards & Certification to consider for Smart Grid & Smart City
Since Smart Grid and Smart Cities security is paramount, there are several standards that specifically frame it. General certifications such as FIPS-140, OSCCA or Common Criteria are used in many different industries, including industrial IoT. As a security expert, Secure-IC supports companies wishing to acquire and strengthen these certifications; whether through collaborative projects, tutorials, trainings or operational consulting.
General Certifications:
- FIPS 140-3 (U.S. Standard)
- Common Criteria (EU Standard)
- OSCCA (Chinese Standard)
Smart Grid & Smart City Specific Certifications:
- IEC 62443
- SESIP
- PSA
ISA/IEC 62443 is a series of standards that provide detailed requirements for Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS). It is a comprehensive set of standards that cover security risk assessment at the various stages of design and development processes. It enables all the agents in the supply chain to identify the risks and address them with countermeasures to ensure security in response to the ever growing risk of cyber threats. ISA/IEC 62443 is subdivided into four tiers: general, policies & procedures, system and component with each tier consisting of multiple parts.
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