Un resumen de: “Security information sharing in smart grids: Persisting security audits to the blockchain”

This chapter examines homeland security information systems (HSIS) with a focus on local governments. Local governments are typically the first at the scene when responding to an emergency or a terrorist attack. The most notable incidents are Hurricane Katrina and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In both of these incidents the first responders were the local governments, which faced dual issues of communication and information sharing. It is important to understand the current level of preparedness and use of HSIS in local governments. This chapter tries to discern the relative priority of HSIS compared to other priorities of local governments in the realm of homeland security. This chapter first outlines some background information on local governments with respect to their organizational structure and level of homeland security preparedness. The second section outlines the stages of e-government adoption, which is commonly discussed in the local e-government literature. Third, there is a discussion of homeland security information sharing between the federal, state, and local governments. There is some evidence presented from existing surveys of the impact of HSIS on local governments. Finally, there is survey results presented from a study conducted by the International City/ County Management Association (ICMA) on homeland security preparedness. This survey information is used to determine where HSIS fits into local priorities on homeland security.

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Security Information Sharing in Smart Grids: Persisting Security Audits to the Blockchain

Electronics ◽

10.3390/electronics9111865 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (11) ◽

pp. 1865

Author(s):

Andrés Marín-López ◽

Sergio Chica-Manjarrez ◽

David Arroyo ◽

Florina Almenares-Mendoza ◽

Daniel Díaz-Sánchez

Keyword(s):

Information Exchange ◽

Smart Grids ◽

Power Grid ◽

Inventory Systems ◽

Data Networks ◽

Digital Evidence ◽

Operations Planning ◽

Audit Result ◽

Evidence Gathering ◽

Security Audits

With the transformation in smart grids, power grid companies are becoming increasingly dependent on data networks. Data networks are used to transport information and commands for optimizing power grid operations: Planning, generation, transportation, and distribution. Performing periodic security audits is one of the required tasks for securing networks, and we proposed in a previous work autoauditor, a system to achieve automatic auditing. It was designed according to the specific requirements of power grid companies, such as scaling with the huge number of heterogeneous equipment in power grid companies. Though pentesting and security audits are required for continuous monitoring, collaboration is of utmost importance to fight cyber threats. In this paper we work on the accountability of audit results and explore how the list of audit result records can be included in a blockchain, since blockchains are by design resistant to data modification. Moreover, blockchains endowed with smart contracts functionality boost the automation of both digital evidence gathering, audit, and controlled information exchange. To our knowledge, no such system exists. We perform throughput evaluation to assess the feasibility of the system and show that the system is viable for adaptation to the inventory systems of electrical companies.

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