A Tamper-Resistant Storage Framework for Smart Grid security

In the past few years, the energy sector has been among the most targeted by cyber-criminals. Due to the strong reliance of Critical Infrastructures on energy distribution, and the strategic value of such systems, the impact of intrusions and data breaches cannot be underestimated. In this scenario, data constitutes a critical asset to protect, especially as the latest technological development has led to interconnected intelligent systems, named smart grids. The consequences of data tampering, exposure or loss can range from disruption of essential services, to serious risks for environment, economy and people safety. Data provenance, as the documentation of the origin of data and the processes and methodology that led to it, can bring support when facing the aforementioned attacks. The present work aims to address security issues in the energy domain, by proposing the Advanced Tamper-Resistant Storage (ATRS), a novel framework for data provenance based on blockchain technology. The ATRS allows for the creation and storage of provenance records, whose reliability is ensured by the tamper-resistance feature enabled through the combination of blockchain and TLS-based communication. The framework, tailored and tested for the smart grid domain, can easily be customized for different critical use cases.