The impact of the summer 2007 forest fires in Greece: Recent environmental mobilizations, cyber-activism and electoral performance

This report circumambulates around the environmental issue, examining mobilizations in favour of public access to the seafront and protest events against the recent devastating forest fires. By framing this discussion within existing scholarly contributions on related dimensions of the environmental issue (environmental consciousness, grassroots environmental contestation) in Southern Europe in general and Greece in particular, it suggests that the environmental mobilization dynamic in Greece has been infused with a new, global, mobilizing resource that offers new avenues to evaluate the potency of Greek civil society. Finally, the article discusses the results of the 2007 national elections and ponders the chances of political ecology becoming a permanent feature of Greek parliamentary politics.

Man-in-the-Middle Attack Test-bed Investigating Cyber-security Vulnerabilities in Smart Grid SCADA Systems

The increased complexity and interconnectivity of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems in the Smart Grid has exposed them to a wide range of cyber-security issues, and there are a multitude of potential access points for cyber attackers. This paper presents a SCADA-specific cyber-security test-bed which contains SCADA software and communication infrastructure. This test-bed is used to investigate an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing based man-in-the-middle attack. Finally, the paper proposes a future work plan which focuses on applying intrusion detection and prevention technology to address cyber-security issues in SCADA systems.

Impact of Cyber-Security Issues on Smart Grid

Greater complexity and interconnectivity across systems embracing Smart Grid technologies has meant that cyber-security issues have attracted significant attention. This paper describes pertinent cyber-security requirements, in particular cyber attacks and countermeasures which are critical for reliable Smart Grid operation. Relevant published literature is presented for critical aspects of Smart Grid cyber-security, such as vulnerability, interdependency, simulation, and standards. Furthermore, a preliminary study case is given which demonstrates the impact of a cyber attack which violates the integrity of data on the load management of real power system. Finally, the paper proposes future work plan which focuses on applying intrusion detection and prevention technology to address cyber-security issues. This paper also provides an overview of Smart Grid cyber-security with reference to related cross-disciplinary research topics.

PRECYSE: Cyber-attack Detection and Response for Industrial Control Systems

In this short paper, we present an integrated approach to detecting and mitigating cyber-attacks to modern interconnected industrial control systems. One of the primary goals of this approach is that it is cost effective, and thus whenever possible it builds on open-source security technologies and open standards, which are complemented with novel security solutions that address the specific challenges of securing critical infrastructures.

Cyber Security Research: a vision for the UK: Finance challenges

Invited talk, representing the Royal Society

Towards a Cyber-physical Resilience Framework for Smart Grids

As modern power grids move towards becoming a smart grid, there is an increasing reliance on the data that is transmitted and processed by ICT systems. This reliance introduces new digital attack vectors. Many of the proposed approaches that aim to address this problem largely focus on applying well-known ICT security solutions. However, what is needed are approaches that meet the complex concerns of the smart grid as a cyber-physical system. Furthermore, to support the automatic control loops that exist in a power grid, similarly automatic security and resilience mechanisms are needed that rely on minimal operator intervention. The research proposed in this paper aims to develop a framework that ensures resilient smart grid operation in light of successful cyber-attacks.