BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:IEEE vTools.Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:US/Central BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20150308T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:CDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20151101T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:CST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20150312T152241Z UID:8D5DB216-12E3-1033-BA8D-0050568D3657 DTSTART;TZID=US/Central:20150313T170000 DTEND;TZID=US/Central:20150313T183000 DESCRIPTION:Description: Idaho National Laboratory ran the Aurora Generator Test in 2007 to demonstrate how a cyber attack could destroy physical com ponents of the electric grid. The experiment used a computer program to ra pidly open and close a diesel generator's circuit breakers out of phase fr om the rest of the grid and explode. This vulnerability is referred to as the Aurora Vulnerability.\n\nThe Aurora Vulnerability is especially a conc ern because much grid equipment supports using Modbus and other legacy com munications protocols that were designed without security in mind. As such \, they don't support authentication\, confidentiality\, or replay protect ion\, which means any attacker that can communicate with the device can co ntrol it and use the Aurora Vulnerability to destroy it. This is a serious concern\, as the failure of even a single generator could cause widesprea d outages and possibly cascading failure of the entire power grid\, like w hat occurred in the Northeast blackout of 2003. Additionally\, even if the re are no outages from the removal of a single component (N-1 resilience)\ , there is a large window for a second attack or failure\, as it could tak e more than a year to replace it\, because many generators and transformer s are custom-built for the substation.\n\nThe Aurora Vulnerability can be mitigated by preventing the out-of-phase opening and closing of the breake rs. Some suggested methods include adding functionality in protective rela ys to ensure synchronism and adding a time delay for closing breakers.\n\n Speaker: Joshua Hughes\, Field Application Engineer\, Schweitzer Engineeri ng Labs\n\nOne Professional Development Hour will be available for attendi ng this event.\n\nDinner provided: $10 IEEE & TSPE members\, $20 non-membe rs. Please include any special dietary requests in your registration.\n\nR egistration required by March 11th @ 5pm\n\nJoshua Hughes graduated from T ennessee Technological University in 2004 with a BSEE focused on digital s ignals. He worked as a system engineer at Tennessee Valley Authority's nuc lear substations for five years. In 2009\, Joshua joined Schweitzer Engine ering Laboratories\, Inc.\, where he served as a project engineer for Engi neering Services in Vacaville\, California. He currently holds the title o f field application engineer and works in Soddy Daisy\, Tennessee where hi s work includes providing application and product support and technical tr aining for protective relay users. Joshua is a member of the IEEE and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Tennessee.\n\nCo-sponsor ed by: PES/IAS & TSPE\n\nSpeaker(s): \, \, \, \n\nAgenda: \nPlease include any special dietary requests in your registration. Thank you.\n\n9180 Cre stwyn Hills Drive\, Memphis\, Tennessee\, United States\, 38125 LOCATION:9180 Crestwyn Hills Drive\, Memphis\, Tennessee\, United States\, 38125 ORGANIZER:bking@fisherarnold.com SEQUENCE:12 SUMMARY:Mitigating the Aurora Vulnerability URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/33213 X-ALT-DESC:Description: <br /><p><strong>Description</strong>: Idaho Nation al Laboratory ran the<strong> Aurora Generator Test</strong> in 2007 to de monstrate how a cyber attack could destroy physical components of the elec tric grid. The experiment used a computer program to rapidly open and clos e a diesel generator's circuit breakers out of phase from the rest of the grid and explode. This vulnerability is referred to as the <em><strong>Aur ora Vulnerability</strong></em>.</p>\n<p>The Aurora Vulnerability is espec ially a concern because much grid equipment supports using Modbus and othe r legacy communications protocols that were designed without security in m ind. As such\, they don't support authentication\, confidentiality\, or re play protection\, which means any attacker that can communicate with the d evice can control it and use the Aurora Vulnerability to destroy it. This is a serious concern\, as the failure of even a single generator could cau se widespread outages and possibly cascading failure of the entire power g rid\, like what occurred in the Northeast blackout of 2003. Additionally\, even if there are no outages from the removal of a single component (N-1 resilience)\, there is a large window for a second attack or failure\, as it could take more than a year to replace it\, because many generators and transformers are custom-built for the substation.</p>\n<p>The Aurora Vuln erability can be mitigated by preventing the out-of-phase opening and clos ing of the breakers. Some suggested methods include adding functionality i n protective relays to ensure synchronism and adding a time delay for clos ing breakers.</p>\n<p><strong>Speaker</strong>: &nbsp\;Joshua Hughes\, Fie ld Application Engineer\, Schweitzer Engineering Labs</p>\n<p><em>One Prof essional Development Hour will be available for attending this event.</em> </p>\n<p><em>Dinner provided: $10 IEEE &amp\; TSPE members\, $20 non-membe rs.&nbsp\;</em><em>Please include any special dietary requests in your reg istration.</em></p>\n<p><em>Registration required by March 11th @ 5pm</em> </p>\n<p>Joshua Hughes graduated from Tennessee Technological University i n 2004 with a BSEE focused on digital signals. He worked as a system engin eer at Tennessee Valley Authority's nuclear substations for five years. In 2009\, Joshua joined Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories\, Inc.\, where h e served as a project engineer for Engineering Services in Vacaville\, Cal ifornia. He currently holds the title of field application engineer and wo rks in Soddy Daisy\, Tennessee where his work includes providing applicati on and product support and technical training for protective relay users. Joshua is a member of the IEEE and is a registered professional engineer i n the state of Tennessee.</p>\n<p>&nbsp\;</p>\n<p>&nbsp\;</p><br /><br />A genda: <br /><p>Please include any special dietary requests in your regist ration. Thank you.</p> END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR