Convergence of Cyber and Physical Security – A must for Smart Grid Systems

Abstract

 In the field of information security the most obvious type of security is physical security. The key aim of physical protection is to have an atmosphere that is secure for all the properties and organizational interests. The need for physical security has been heightened by the rising number of laptops and telecommuters. Physical security includes security guards, locks and warning panels etc. that both the visitors and the internal workers will see. These visual security checks give a fair amount of recognition of the security position in place in an organization. An attacker can feel harder to work to outstrip an organization's security if a visual image of top-class security is provided in front of him. In this paper, we will discuss about the physical security of a power grid systems, which is of national importance. With this changing technology at a rapid pace, there is a need to integrate the security in grid systems with the IT infrastructure. Often the security aspects in a grid systems is considered revolving around networks, operation security etc. and majority times physical security gets ignored. In this paper, by means of an exhaustive study of all the existing research work related to security systems, we are emphasizing on the need for Cyber Physical Systems, and proposing the convergence of Cyber security with Physical security.