Florentina Magda Enescu

Issues in Securing Critical Infrastructure Networks for Smart Grid Based on SCADA, Other Industrial Control and Communication Systems

Computer facilities and microprocessor-based technology have been successfully used in the energy industry. For protection and equipment control, this technology has been used in SCADA, remote control and monitoring applications. Particular attention is paid to the cyber security sector for automation and control systems. Protective application of the equipment and control, SCADA, monitoring and remote control, uses the technology with microprocessor. Due to the great importance of the power supply process, there is no question of being left in a state of vulnerability and neglect. Security is not perfect and will never be. For this reason, there will always be security breaches and incidents. Also, for this reason, not only protection mechanisms are in place, but also mechanisms for rapid detection of incidents and which are able to react effectively to the isolation of problems and to ensuring security. Processes security for systems will continue to evolve in the future. By definition, there are no communication systems that are 100% safe. Attacks against critical industrial infrastructures marked an increase not only in terms of number but also of the level of complexity. The destruction of the industrial control system (ICS) and critical processes were interrupted. For many organizations, the security improvement in ICS systems is great. The extreme sensitivity to ensure the availability and performance of industrial processes has led to a more conservative and rigorous approach to how security measures are implemented. Cyber-attacks that could compromise the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of ICS systems may come from within systems or from outside ICS systems. Among the ICS system infection vectors from the perspective of the SANS Institute (2014) include: external threats (state attacks, hacking etc.), malware, exploiting tools, phishing, internal attacks, cyber security protocols, and industrial espionage. This chapter addresses the cyber security issues required for the protection, automation, control and communications systems of transformation stations as well as methods that could be used to prevent computer attacks that can have a significant impact on the availability of the system Electro-energetic effect with serious consequences on extended area interruptions.

Traffic management system

This papers purpose is describing and highlighting of how our system is intended to work and how it can help us in everyday life, as well as making the Earth a safer and cleaner place, by not even noticing its presence. Our system is always monitoring the traffic of every major city, analyzing it and making decisions on how people should drive, in a manner that the roads are safer, the fuel consumption is reduced, as well as the pollution. The system also takes in consideration the traffic jams and gives hints on how we can avoid the jammed traffic so we can be on time to our destination. On the other hand, we have to consider the pollution that appears when everybody drives his own car instead of using the public transportation systems. Our system will receive information from strategic placed sensors that measure the pollution level, and after interpreting the information, takes decisions on how we can reduce the level of pollution.

System for monitoring and controlling renewable energy sources

This article shows the possibility of using renewable energy sources in order to improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and therefore prevent climate change. This article proposes a remote monitoring and control system with interfaces and data collectors. In addition to research, development, testing and use of renewable energies, it is also necessary to measure and track online, from a distance all the phenomena that occur. Due to the evolution of information and communications technologies, monitoring and control techniques, they need to be tested in practice before marketing. This ensures both scalability and interoperability, demonstrating the possibility of collecting, centralizing, analyzing energy consumption and CO2 data. In this way, measurable character, data transparency, company acceptability, planning and visibility of renewable energy usage can be improved. And of course, its impact on the environment must be monitored.

System using a hybrid application for virtual reality 3D drawing

Smart devices have many sensors that capture the user data and use it for device control, improving the user experience, or send it through a computer network in order to be processed. The interaction between user and applications, especially in virtual reality, is made via motion and gestures with information offered by sensors such as accelerometer, compass or gyroscope. In order to reduce the complexity of developing this type of applications, it is possible to write hybrid applications that allow the programmer to code using web technologies then deploy and run the resulted applications natively on multiple operating systems. This paper presents the implementation of a virtual reality drawing hybrid application, created with the Telerik Mobile platform, which reads the compass and accelerometer data and sends the information to a server that creates a 3D representation using the Processing Development Environment.

SCADA Applications for Electric Power System

Main objective of this chapter is to present the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) technology applied in the energy sector which requires distributed control and monitoring at different levels. If the process is distributed, then the advantages of SCADA system will be seen through low costs related to movements of the equipment to improve the performance tracking. Processes that need to be monitored on a large area, and request frequent and immediate interventions, can be solved more efficiently through a SCADA system. For this, the connection between the master station and remote units must be done via a communication system which can use different communication technologies such as cable, radio, mobile phones, and even satellites. The optimum data transfer may be obtained by using a specific communication protocol. It is worth to mention that such SCADA-based communications are developed using the optical fiber communications technology via the Internet. The information flow between remote and central SCADA units could be designed to be bidirectional for high performance and reliability of the distributed control system, but note that both digital and analog signals are involved in such systems. Besides, an important issue is the information security related to such systems. It is known that the automation and real-time control are used via the Internet and wireless technology, but these technologies have also brought some security problems, having a strong impact both in the business and to the users. The SCADA applications analyzed in this chapter is focused on Electrical Power Systems (EPS). The stepwise step design is shown using the programming environment named VIJEO CITECT SURVEILLANCE SOFTWARES—version 7.40®. The main objective is to show how can be optimized the real-time control to obtain affordable solutions for the EPS based on Renewable Energy Sources (RESs). The both current and optimized solutions are presented, and the role of the reactive power is highlighted in the comparative solutions shown, which are implemented in practice as well. This was achieved by optimizing the SCADA solution of the operation, transmission and overseeing the execution of programs for the operation of power plant trough: (1) the description of the existing solution; (2) the description of the proposed solution with redundant SCADA servers; (3) the disadvantages of the proposed solution with Remote Terminal Unit 32 (RTU32). The optimization of the applications has been carried out because the graphical interface is poor, as long as the only information displayed is from the distribution stations, the states of the switches in medium-voltage lines and of the equipment in the stations. Therefore the dispatcher has not displayed the graphical information about the status of the line equipment, and does not have a quick overview to state of the medium-voltage line as well. Thus, the dispatcher must consult the printed diagrams, which means time consumed and such complicated maneuvers will occupy the most time their activity during a day. Thus, here it will be shown the steps to optimize the graphical interface in order to quickly see the status of the EPS. Furthermore, by improving the graphic interface, the efficiency in carrying out the appropriate maneuvers will increase, as well as the degree of safety. The applications have been designed with high flexibility and can be used either for small applications, either for large size systems. Also, the graphic interface was designed to display online the page’s status and the trends in state variables.

Using the Phone’s Light Sensor to Detect the TV Video Stream

Current smart devices (phones, tablets, etc.) have integrated light sensors to adjust the screen’s brightness to the ambient light. The light sensors have become more sensitive and are even able to read the RGB light components. In Android, this information can be accessed without special access rights for the application. An application can use the information from the light sensor to detect the ambient light variations and relay this information to a server where it can be used to determine the video information being displayed. This paper details the data flow and tests the implementation for a single video flow on multiple light sensors.

MONITORING AND ANALYSIS OF THE TURBODETENTOR OPERATING SYSTEM FROM CRYOGENIC DISTILLATION PLANT USING LABVIEW SOFTWARE.

1. Department of Cryogenic Pilot Plant, National Institute of Research Development for Cryogenic and Isotope Separation Technologies, ICSI-Rm.Valcea, Romania. 2. Department of Automation and Industrial Informatics, Automation and Computer Faculty, University Polytechnic of Bucharest, Romania. 3. Department of Computer Science, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany. 4. Department of Electronics, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University from Pitesti, Romania.

A Laboratory Infrastructure for the Evaluation of the Use of Multi-Agent Technologies in Industrial SCADA Systems

This paper presents some considerations on the posibility of using of multi-agent systems MAS in building SCADA systems. It also describes the laboratory test bench developed by us for the testing of the SCADA-MAS compound. It is shown the reflection in the literature of the SCADA-MAS subject to the extent that it exists and the main concepts underlying the two important technologies, one of which is of technical and engineering origin, and the other is related to artificial intelligence. We evaluates the prejudgement concerning incompatibility or the disimilarity of the two technologies having divergent characteristics. We propose research directions suitable for multi-agent systems to assist in solving industrial SCADA networks.

A proposal for developing a text editing checking software material based on a Complex Contrastive lexicographic database

The present paper tries to substantiate the claim that users of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) will gain considerable language awareness, in terms of both semantics and grammar, while checking on the accuracy of their edited texts, if an integrated software material - which we intend to develop - is used. The following set of concrete proposals for developing such a software for the active study of EFL is based on our previous researches on error-analysis. The main objective of the paper is to find the experts in the field of software making who are willing and able to make the actual software for the use of the language database described.