EECS Seminar: Attacks Against the Power Grid - Past, Present and Future

Abstract: Several safety-critical systems rely on the continuous operation of the power grid. Unlike other distribution networks like gas or water that can build storage systems close to consumers, the electric network cannot easily store power. Therefore we cannot tolerate disruptions of the network connecting large generation plants to consumers countrywide. In this talk, we will present our work analyzing the past, present and future attacks against the power grid. We will focus on our experience with real-world attacks. First, we will analyze decades of attacks on the power grid infrastructure in Colombia, resulting in perverse incentives for industries. Then we provide an in-depth analysis of the malware launched against the power grid in Ukraine in 2016 and then again in 2022, just months after the Russian invasion. Finally, we will discuss attacks that might be possible in the future through high-wattage IoT botnets.

Bio: Alvaro A. Cardenas is an associate professor of computer science and engineering at UC Santa Cruz. Before joining UCSC, he was the Eugene McDermott Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley and a research staff member at Fujitsu Laboratories. He holds a master's degree and doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a bachelor's degree from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia. His research interests focus on cyberphysical systems and IoT security and privacy, including autonomous vehicles, drones, smart home devices and SCADA systems controlling the power grid and other critical infrastructures. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the 2018 faculty excellence in research award from the Erik Johnson School of Engineering and Computer Science, the Eugene McDermott Fellow Endowed Chair at UTD, and the Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Security and Privacy. He has also received best paper awards from various venues, including the ACM CPS & IoT Security Workshop, IEEE Smart Grid Communications Conference, and the U.S. Army Research Conference. One of his papers was also a finalist in the CSAW competition in Israel. Cardenas' research has been funded by NSF, ARO, AFOSR, NSA, NIST, MITRE, DHS, Phoenix Technologies and Intel.