Side channel analysis of multiple PMU data in electric power systems

The deployment of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) in an electric power grid will enhance real-time monitoring and analysis of grid operations. The PMU collects bus voltage phasors, branch current phasors, and bus frequency measurements and uses a communication network to transmit the measurements to the respective substation(s)/control center(s). PMU information is sensitive, since missing or incorrect PMU data could lead to grid failure and/or damage. It is important to use encrypted communicate channels to avoid cyber attacks. In this study, a side-channel attack using inter-packet delays to isolate the stream of packets of one PMU from an encrypted tunnel is shown. Also, encryption in power system VPNs and vulnerabilities due to side channel analysis is discussed.