Review and Evaluation of Security Threats on the Communication Networks in the Smart Grid

The smart grid, generally referred to as the next-generation power electric system, relies on robust communication networks to provide efficient, secure, and reliable information delivery. Thus, the network security is of critical importance in the smart grid. In this paper, the authors aim at classifying and evaluating the security threats on the communication networks in the smart grid. Based on a top-down analysis, they categorize the goals of potential attacks against the smart grid communication networks into three types: network availability, data integrity and information privacy. They then qualitatively analyze both the impact and feasibility of the three types of attacks.