Lemnos Interoperable Security Program

The manner in which the control systems are being designed and operated in the energy sector is undergoing some of the most significant changes in history due to the evolution of technology and the increasing number of interconnections to other system. With these changes however come two significant challenges that the energy sector must face; 1) Cyber security is more important than ever before, and 2) Cyber security is more complicated than ever before. A key requirement in helping utilities and vendors alike in meeting these challenges is interoperability. While interoperability has been present in much of the discussions relating to technology utilized within the energy sector and especially the Smart Grid, it has been absent in the context of cyber security. The Lemnos project addresses these challenges by focusing on the interoperability of devices utilized within utility control systems which support critical cyber security functions. In theory, interoperability is possible with many of the cyber security solutions available to utilities today. The reality is that the effort required to achieve cyber security interoperability is often a barrier for utilities. For example, consider IPSec, a widely-used Internet Protocol to define Virtual Private Networks, or “ tunnels”, to communicate securely through untrusted public and private networks. The IPSec protocol suite has a significant number of configuration options and encryption parameters to choose from, which must be agreed upon and adopted by both parties establishing the tunnel. The exercise in getting software or devices from different vendors to interoperate is labor intensive and requires a significant amount of security expertise by the end user. Scale this effort to a significant number of devices operating over a large geographical area and the challenge becomes so overwhelming that it often leads utilities to pursue solutions from a single vendor. These single vendor solutions may inadvertently lock utilities into proprietary and closed systems Lemnos is built on the successes of Open PCS Security Architecture for Interoperable Design (OPSAID), a previous DOE National SCADA Test Bed (NSTB) project. It enhances security interoperability by identifying basic cyber security functions based on utility requirements and then selecting open source solutions, namely Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFCs, to support these functions. Once identified, specific configuration parameters for each RFC suitable for the electric utility control system environment are identified and documented. These configuration parameters are referred to as Interoperable Configuration Profiles (ICP) and their effectiveness within the utility control systems environment is verified with comprehensive testing as the final step in the process. The project focused on development of ICPs for four security protocols (IPsec, SSH, LDAP, and Syslog) which represent fundamental building blocks which can be utilized for securing utility control systems. These ICPs are product agnostic and can be applied modularly to any device (router, substation gateway, intelligent electronic device, etc.) within the utility control system as the end user deems necessary for their unique system architecture. The Lemnos Interoperable Security Program is a public-private partnership under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability's Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems (CEDS) program and supports The Roadmap to Secure Energy Delivery Systems. In addition to EnerNex, the core team supporting the effort includes Tennessee Valley Authority, Sandia National Laboratories, and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. Adding to the core team effort is collaboration from additional industry participants in the project including the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Alien Vault, Cisco, Encore Networks, GarrettCom, Industrial Defender, N-Dimension Solutions, Phoenix Contact, RuggedCom, and Siemens