Using innovative tech to protect critical infrastructure
Smart grids are vital to the global economy, but they are at risk of cyberattacks. Researchers at UAEU are investigating how to develop trustworthy frameworks for more secure and resilient smart grids
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Cyberattacks on smart grids are a threat to national and international security, says Ali Ismail Awad, an associate professor of cybersecurity in the Department of Information Systems and Security at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU).
“Smart grids have become critical infrastructure,” he says, and yet they are vulnerable in an increasingly digital and connected world. Smart grids are electricity networks that integrate digital and other advanced technologies, such as the Internet of Things, to monitor and manage electricity transportation within a country – and sometimes beyond its borders. However, this integration creates a massive “attack surface” for security threats, he says.
Awad and his colleagues at UAEU are working to secure smart grids. However, this is a big task, he says. Smart grids encompass several technologies and devices, with many different aspects and layers that need protection.
“We try to build trustworthy, cyber resilient security frameworks, using state-of-the-art technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, to bridge the gap between security research and the practical requirements of real-world smart grid deployments,” he says.
For example, Awad and colleagues published a paper in the journal Internet of Things that shows how blockchain can improve smart-grid security. Awad and his team currently have other papers under review in prestigious journals.
When it comes to AI, it is vital to ensure that the AI tool itself is secure and trustworthy. “Part of my research is to secure AI tools. It doesn’t make any sense to have an untrusted tool to secure something that is really critical,” he says.
Awad is leading two projects focusing on cybersecurity. The first, B-SEGrid (which stands for blockchain-enabled secure and resilient framework for smart grids), will build on the university’s expertise in smart-grid security. Funded by UAEU, it aims to investigate innovative technologies to secure smart grids. “This kind of project reflects UAEU’s role as a key enabler for research in critical infrastructure security and its commitment to support long-term, high-impact research,” he says.
The other project – TRAIAGE – runs in parallel with B-SEGrid. “The goal of TRAIAGE is to build an intelligent digital immune system, with applications in healthcare, drone platforms, and perhaps military applications,” Awad says. The research output from TRAIAGE could also be applied to smart grids. The project aims to develop AI-driven modules that improve the security of these digital systems.
Given the complexity of modern digital systems, collaboration is vital. UAEU’s College of Information Technology has three departments that often work together on complex digital security issues – information systems and security, computer and network engineering, and computer science and software. “They form a kind of multidisciplinary structure that enables us to address smart grid security from different dimensions,” he explains. “We try to use our competencies and capabilities to come up with innovative ideas and solutions.”
Going forward, Awad hopes to attract industry partners so that the research can be tested in the real world. “In industry, they can provide us with real-world problems,” he says. “It’s not only to test our proposed methods on an industrial scale, but they can also give us useful feedback and bridge research and industry.”
However, humans remain the most vulnerable link in the cybersecurity chain, says Awad. In the future, he would like to investigate the social dimension of cybersecurity. “Humans are the weakest part of the cybersecurity chain. Without proper security education, training and awareness, even the most sophisticated security frameworks will leave our smart grids at risk.”