The rise of cyber threats on critical infrastructure and its potential for devastating consequences, has significantly increased. The dependency of new power grid technology on information, data analytic and communication systems make the entire electricity network vulnerable to cyber threats. Power transformers play a critical role within the power grid and are now commonly enhanced through factory add-ons or intelligent monitoring systems added later to improve the condition monitoring of critical and long lead time assets such as transformers. However, the increased connectivity of those power transformers opens the door to more cyber attacks. Therefore, the need to detect and prevent cyber threats is becoming critical. The first step towards that would be a deeper understanding of the potential cyber-attacks landscape against power transformers. Much of the existing literature pays attention to smart equipment within electricity distribution networks, and most methods proposed are based on model-based detection algorithms. Moreover, only a few of these works address the security vulnerabilities of power elements, especially transformers within the transmission network. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study in the literature that systematically investigate the cybersecurity challenges against the newly emerged smart transformers. This paper addresses this shortcoming by exploring the vulnerabilities and the attack vectors of power transformers within electricity networks, the possible attack scenarios and the risks associated with these attacks.
翻译:新的电网技术对信息、数据分析和通信系统的依赖,使得整个电网易受网络威胁;电力变压器在电网中发挥着关键作用,目前通常通过工厂加装或智能监测系统得到加强,这些变压器在电网中发挥着关键作用,这些变压器后来又增添了工厂加装或智能监测系统,以改善对关键和长期周转资产(如变压器)状况的监测;然而,这些变压器的连通性增加,为更多的网络攻击打开了大门。因此,发现和预防网络威胁的必要性正在变得十分关键。为此,第一步将是更深入地了解潜在的网络攻击对变压器的景象。现有文献大多关注电力配电网中的智能设备,而提议的方法大多以基于模型的检测算法为基础。此外,这些作品中只有少数涉及电力元件的安全脆弱性,特别是变压器在传输网络中的变压器。据我们所知,对于系统调查新出现的智能变压器所面临的网络挑战的文献中没有任何研究。本文通过探索与这些变压器攻击相关的弱点和攻击风险、电网内可能发生的攻击风险来弥补这一缺陷。</s>