On security of a home energy management system

Smart grid, constituting of numerous components and sub-systems, can be a target for security threats. Failure of any sub-system to properly defend itself against attacks poses a serious risk to the protection of smart grid as a whole. Therefore, securing residential demand response (DR) applications as part of the smart grid requires careful attention. This paper discusses security concerns of a specific DR implementation: the Home Energy Management (HEM) system developed at Virginia Tech (VT). The paper identifies possible security attacks against its various key components, and presents best practices for the counter-measure against those attacks. Privacy issues have also been addressed using access control methods. The paper serves as a use case example of assessing and mitigating security risks in residential DR programs.