A collaborative multi-party encryption for mitigating man-in-the-middle attacks in smart grid and energy IoT systems

Area of Science:

• Cybersecurity
• Energy Systems Engineering
• Cryptography

Background:

• Digitalization of energy systems, including smart grids and IoT infrastructures, increases vulnerability to sophisticated cyber threats like man-in-the-middle (MitM) and replay attacks.
• Distributed devices such as smart meters and gateways are particularly susceptible, necessitating robust security solutions.
• Existing security schemes often rely on third parties or struggle to balance security with the resource constraints of IoT devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel collaborative multi-party encryption scheme designed for decentralized energy infrastructures.
• To enhance cybersecurity resilience against MitM attacks in smart grids and energy IoT.
• To provide a secure, scalable, and lightweight solution suitable for resource-constrained IoT devices.

Main Methods:

• Development of a collaborative multi-party encryption scheme integrating RSA- and ElGamal-inspired mechanisms with a nested key structure.
• Generation of a collaboratively derived master key across multiple intermediate nodes, eliminating reliance on third-party trust anchors.
• Formal security analysis using the Dolev-Yao threat model to prove resistance to MitM attacks.

Main Results:

• The proposed scheme demonstrates provable resistance to man-in-the-middle attacks under the Dolev-Yao threat model.
• Experimental results indicate lightweight encryption suitable for resource-constrained IoT devices, though decryption time increases with node participation.
• Message overhead scales linearly with encryption layers but remains manageable for typical IoT deployments, offering unique combinations of MitM resistance, collaborative trust, and IoT suitability.

Conclusions:

• The developed collaborative encryption scheme offers a resilient and scalable security solution for anonymous, decentralized energy infrastructures.
• It effectively supports the integrity and privacy requirements of next-generation smart energy systems.
• The scheme uniquely addresses the combined challenges of advanced cyber threats, decentralized trust, and IoT device limitations.