Low-budget Energy Sector Cyberattacks via Open Source Exploitation

Anastasis Keliris, Charalambos Konstantinou, Marios Sazos, Michail Maniatakos

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Modern cyber warfare involves penetration of a nation's computers and networks, aiming to cause extensive damage and/or disruption. Such actions are generally deemed feasible only by resource-wealthy nation state actors. In this work, we challenge this perception and introduce a methodology dubbed Open Source Exploitation (OSEXP), which leverages public infrastructure to execute an advanced cyber attack on critical infrastructure. In particular, we characterize and verify an effective and reusable OSEXP attack vector based on time spoofing of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals. Our GPS attack employs commercial devices and open source software, and manipulates the time synchronization of carefully selected power grid equipment in a manner that can lead to large scale blackouts. We experimentally verify the feasibility of our GPS OSEXP methodology, and demonstrate that an actor with limited budget has the ability to cause significant disruption to a nation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2018 26th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Very Large Scale Integration, VLSI-SoC 2018
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages101-106
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781538647561
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2 2018
Event26th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Very Large Scale Integration, VLSI-SoC 2018 - Verona, Italy
Duration: Oct 8 2018Oct 10 2018

Publication series

NameIEEE/IFIP International Conference on VLSI and System-on-Chip, VLSI-SoC
Volume2018-October
ISSN (Print)2324-8432
ISSN (Electronic)2324-8440

Conference

Conference26th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Very Large Scale Integration, VLSI-SoC 2018
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityVerona
Period10/8/1810/10/18

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Software
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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