Seminar in Identity, Privacy and Security: Cyber-Physical Security of the Smart Grid

Information technology facilitates greater efficiency, cost effectiveness and timeliness of data thus driving cyber-enabled innovation. The higher granularity and accessibility to personal and sensitive data in our information-driven world, however, brings forth natural challenges in addressing identity, privacy and security. This seminar course aims to bring together several challenges and solutions related to identity, privacy and security as it relates to the emerging cyber-enabled power grid known as the smart grid. The security of a system is as strong as its weakest link. Thus, the scale and complexity of the smart grid provides a natural framework to discuss diverse threats and attacks, and multidisciplinary mitigation approaches. Moreover, the smart grid also represents a prototypical cyber-physical system requiring a recasting of the classical definitions for security to include a cyber-physical context. This course introduces students to timely topics in cyber-physical security, privacy and identity of modern energy systems. Fundamental technical principles of information security and power delivery will be provided in lectures followed by technological solutions for smart grid cyber-physical security based on research papers and technical reports. Invited public seminars and assigned group work will establish breadth of the topic touching upon multidisciplinary issues and tensions related to policy, governance and technology