EPESec 2023

4th International Workshop on Electrical Power and Energy Systems Safety, Security and Resilience
(EPESec 2023)

to be held in conjunction with the 18th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security

(ARES 2023 – http://www.ares-conference.eu)

August 29 – September 01, 2023, Benevento, Italy

Energy transition poses significant challenges, as the road ahead is focused on integrating higher share of renewables, promoting a more efficient and decentralized energy system, by involving advanced digital technologies and systems such as smart devices, faster and more flexible gateways, smart meters and IoT. However, this transition necessitates the integration of cyber-defense measures and strategies into novel, resilient and self-healing architectures.

The forthcoming smart energy ecosystem is considered as the next-generation power system, which promises self-healing, resilience, sustainability, and efficiency to the critical energy infrastructure. However, due to the increasing digitization of the energy infrastructure, the risk of cyberattacks has risen dramatically, while as the smart energy and power grid is reaching every house and building, the potential of attracting cyber-attackers is magnified. Additionally, legacy systems constitute weak points of failure since they were designed in times when cybersecurity and remote monitoring and control was not part of the technical specifications for the system design.

According to the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA): ‘A cybersecurity incident to power grids could be defined as any adverse event that can impact the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems supporting the different processes of the organizations involved in the well-functioning of the power system, including all its domains (e.g., markets, operation of the distribution or transmission grid, customers, etc.).

From this perspective, the EPESec 2022 workshop aims at collecting the most relevant ongoing research efforts in the EPES digital security field. It also serves as a forum for relevant projects in order to disseminate their security-related results, boost cooperation, knowledge sharing and follow-up synergies, and foster the development of the EPES Security Community, composed of security experts and practitioners.

The workshop is co-organized from the following projects:

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to

Security policies
Risk analysis and management
Vulnerability assessment and metrics
Awareness, training and simulation
Security standards
Privacy and Anonymity in smart/ micro grids, privacy preserving technologies
Threat modeling and detection
Cyber threat intelligence
Federated machine learning
Security architectures
Access control
Malware and cyber weapons
Intrusion detection and visualization
Defense in depth
Monitoring and real time supervision
Perimeter security
Safety-security interactions
Cyber security engineering
Secure communication protocols
Formal models for security (attack trees, indicators of compromise, etc.)
Hardware Security

Resilient ICS/CPS
Application Security
Secure Firmware
Incident Response and Digital Forensics
Incidents and Security Information Sharing
Countermeasures and Mitigation Actions Recommendation
Case studies
Attack simulations
Penetration testing / ethical hacking in OT and IT
Data management and interoperability challenges
EPES market trends and business opportunities
Securing private data on Smartphones
Integrating mobile devices into the Cloud
Securing digital twins and their uses for security
Cyber-physical ranges to support security and resilience
Machine learning and AI for security and resilience
Security operations in OT
Incident response in OT
Attacks targeting OT systems

Important Dates
Extended Submission Deadline June 02, 2023
Author Notification June 14, 2023
Proceedings Version June 28, 2023
ARES EU Symposium August 29, 2023
Conference August 29 – September 01, 2023
Workshop Chair

Panagiotis Sarigiannidis
University of Western Makedonia, Greece
psarigiannidis@uowm.gr

Theodoros Rokkas
inCITES Consulting, Luxembourg
trokkas@icnites.eu

Vasileios Gkioulos
Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway
vasileios.gkioulos@ntnu.no

Nicholas Kolokotronis
University of Peloponnese, Greece
nkolok@uop.gr

Dimitris Kavallieros
CERTH, Greece
dim.kavallieros@iti.gr

Francesca Soro
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria
francesca.soro@ait.ac.at

Yoram Meijaard
TNO, The Netherlands
yoram.meijaard@tno.nl

Program Committee

Filip Andren-Pröstl (AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria)
Irina Ciornei (University of Cyprus, KIOS Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence, Cyprus)
Eleni Dara (CERTH, Greece)
Georgios Kavallieratos (Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway)
Swarna Kumarswamy-Das (TNO, The Netherlands)
Konstantinos Kyranou (SIDROCO HOLDINGS, CYPRUS)
Thomas Lagkas (International Hellenic University, Greece)
Athanasios Liatifis (University of Western Makedonia, Greece)
Sofianna Menesidou (UBITECH, Greece)
Luca Morgese (TNO, The Netherlands)
Panagiotis Radoglou Grammatikis (University of Western Makedonia, Greece)
Henrik Sandberg (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)
Ilias Siniosoglou (Metamind Innovations, Greece)
Paul Smith (AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria)
Arnolt Spyros (CERTH, Greece)
Sotiris Soukaras (CERTH, Greece)
Grigore Stamatescu (TUV, Austria, Romania)
AnnaTriantafyllou (University of Western Makedonia, Greece)
Mathias Uslar (OFFIS, Germany)
Andreas Zalonis (Netcompany-Intrasoft, Luxembourg)

Submission Guidelines

The submission guidelines valid for the workshop are the same as for the ARES conference. They can be found at https://www.ares-conference.eu/submission/.

Planed Review Process

All papers will be peer-reviewed by at least three reviewers, while the acceptance rate will be kept below the threshold of 50%.