Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Publication
    Cybersecurity in Power Grids: Challenges and Opportunities
    ( 2021)
    Krause, T.
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    Ernst, R.
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    Klaer, B.
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    Hacker, I.
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    Henze, M.
    Increasing volatilities within power transmission and distribution force power grid operators to amplify their use of communication infrastructure to monitor and control their grid. The resulting increase in communication creates a larger attack surface for malicious actors. Indeed, cyber attacks on power grids have already succeeded in causing temporary, large-scale blackouts in the recent past. In this paper, we analyze the communication infrastructure of power grids to derive resulting fundamental challenges of power grids with respect to cybersecurity. Based on these challenges, we identify a broad set of resulting attack vectors and attack scenarios that threaten the security of power grids. To address these challenges, we propose to rely on a defense-in-depth strategy, which encompasses measures for (i) device and application security, (ii) network security, and (iii) physical security, as well as (iv) policies, procedures, and awareness. For each of these categories, we distill and discuss a comprehensive set of state-of-the art approaches, as well as identify further opportunities to strengthen cybersecurity in interconnected power grids.
  • Publication
    Finding and analysing energy research funding data: The EnArgus system
    This paper presents the concept, a system-overview, and the evaluation of EnArgus, the central information system for energy research funding in Germany. Initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), EnArgus establishes a one-stop information system about all recent and ongoing energy research funding projects in Germany. Participants ranging from laypersons to experts were surveyed in three workshops to evaluate both the public and expert interfaces of the EnArgus system in comparison to peer systems. The results showed that the EnArgus system was predominantly evaluated positively by the various participants. It contributes to making the energy sector more transparent and offers clear advantages for professional use compared to similar systems. The system's semantic processing enables more precise hits and better coverage by including semantically related terms in search results; its intelligence makes it fail-safe, rendering it suitable for areas where poor results can have dire consequences. Reporting on an actual real-world system, the paper also provides a roadmap-view of how electronic filing of administrative project data can be semantically enhanced and opened-up to provide the basis for new ways into the data that are key for future breakthrough AI interfaces.
  • Publication
    FactDAG: Formalizing Data Interoperability in an Internet of Production
    ( 2020)
    Gleim, L.
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    Pennekamp, J.
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    Liebenberg, M.
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    Buchsbaum, M.
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    Niemietz, P.
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    Knape, S.
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    Epple, A.
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    Storms, S.
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    Trauth, D.
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    Bergs, T.
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    Brecher, C.
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    Decker, S.
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    Lakemeyer, G.
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    Wehrle, K.
    In the production industry, the volume, variety, and velocity of data as well as the number of deployed protocols increase exponentially due to the influences of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) advances. While hundreds of isolated solutions exist to utilize these data, e.g., optimizing processes or monitoring machine conditions, the lack of a unified data handling and exchange mechanism hinders the implementation of approaches to improve the quality of decisions and processes in such an interconnected environment. The vision of an Internet of Production promises the establishment of a Worldwide Lab, where data from every process in the network can be utilized, even interorganizational and across domains. While numerous existing approaches consider interoperability from an interface and communication system perspective, fundamental questions of data and information interoperability remain insufficiently addressed. In this article, we identify ten key issues, derived from three distinctive real-world use cases that hinder large-scale data interoperability for industrial processes. Based on these issues, we derive a set of five key requirements for future (IoT) data layers, building upon the FAIR data principles. We propose to address them by creating FactDAG, a conceptual data layer model for maintaining a provenance-based, directed acyclic graph of facts, inspired by successful distributed version-control and collaboration systems. Eventually, such a standardization should greatly shape the future of interoperability in an interconnected production industry.
  • Publication
    Situational awareness, information exchange and operational control for civilian EU missions
    ( 2019) ;
    Deneckere, Matthias
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    De Zan, Tommaso
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    Gräther, Wolfgang
    The European Union conducts a common security and defence policy (CSDP) that follows an integrated approach to external conflict and crisis. One means of the CSDP are external civilian missions, in some cases operating with military missions in the same operational environments. In order to better support the conduct of civilian missions, a Horizon 2020 project was awarded to propose design options for a ""Situational Awareness, Information Exchange and Operational Control Platform"", in short an ""operational control platform"" (OCP). The design of the OCP raises challenges that are relevant not only for European CSDP missions but also for crisis management operations in general, namely questions of situational awareness, interoperability, security and local versus remote operational control. The Civilex project has provided an overview of the actual state of operational control in CSDP missions, investigated current challenges, collected requirements for an OCP and, ultimately, proposed design options for a future platform with the goal to improve situational awareness, information exchange and operational control for CSDP missions. This paper presents the outcomes of the Civilex project.