Cybersecurity R&D for Science and Energy at the Berkeley Lab

The Berkeley Lab’s Computational Research Division is an active participant numerous projects areas of computer security. Its mission-driven emphasis has historically focused on security for science, including high-performance computing and high-throughput networking environments, and security of cyber-physical systems, notably in the power grid.  These projects include collaborations with numerous other academic, National Lab, and industry partners. R&D sponsors have included the Department of Energy (DOE) ASCR and CEDS R&D programs, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the National Science Foundation (NSF) SaTC program and OAC office, and the National Security Agency, among others. 

LBNL has had a leadership role in security in scientific computing environments for many years, including the development of the Zeek (Bro) Network Security Monitor, as well as leading several DOE-sponsored activities related to defining a cybersecurity research program within the DOE.  More recently, LBNL led the coordination of the “Cyber R&D” Enterprise Cyber Capability (ECC) of the DOE-wide Integrated Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center (iJC3) — a sponsored R&D program involving ten DOE National Laboratories as performers. LBNL is currently a co-lead of Trusted CI, the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.

Recent highlights of DST’s cybersecurity R&D activities include:

Tags

cybersecurity differential privacy distributed energy resources fault tolerance forensics HPC insider machine learning medical micro-PMU network power grid privacy SCADA science security trusted execution environment Zeek/Bro IDS

Contact

Sean Peisert

Featured Projects

Provable Anonymization of Grid Data for Cyberattack Detection

This project aims to develop techniques for enabling data analysis for the purposes of detecting and/or investigating cyberattacks against energy delivery systems while also preserving aspects of key confidentiality elements within the underlying raw data being analyzed. The result will be a complete solution for anonymization of data collected from OT and IT networks pertaining to energy grid cyberattack detection that has been tested for its ability to retain privacy properties and still enable attack detection. It is funded by DOE CESER’s CEDS program and is led by Sean Peisert.

Trusted CI — the National Science Foundation Cybersecurity of Excellence

The mission of Trusted CI is to improve the cybersecurity of NSF computational science and engineering projects, while allowing those projects to focus on their science endeavors. The PI of this center at Indiana University is Von Welch. LBNL’s role in this center is led by Sean Peisert.

Cybersecurity via Inverter-Grid Automatic Reconfiguration (CIGAR)

This project is performing R&D to enable distribution grids to adapt to resist a cyber-attack by (1) developing adaptive control algorithms for DER, voltage regulation, and protection systems; (2) analyze new attack scenarios and develop associated defensive strategies. It is funded by DOE CESER’s CEDS program and is co-led by Sean Peisert and Daniel Arnold.

Toward a Hardware/Software Co-Design Framework for Ensuring the Integrity of Exascale Scientific Data

This project takes a broad look at several aspects of security and scientific integrity issues in HPC systems. It is funded by DOE ASCR and is led by Sean Peisert.

Cyber Security of Power Distribution Systems by Detecting Differences Between Real-time Micro-Synchrophasor Measurements and Cyber-Reported SCADA

This project is using micro-PMU measurements and SCADA commands to develop a system to detect cyberattacks against the power distribution grid. It is funded by DOE OE’s CEDS program and is led by Sean Peisert.