SCADA systems play an important role in the nation's critical infrastructure. They provide remote monitoring and control for a number of industries. Many organizations have assessed these systems and have found them to be at risk to cyber attack. At the present time, there are millions of SCADA data collection points in the field using a multitude of communication protocols, most of which are inherently insecure. The purpose of this Phase 1 research is to evaluate the requirements and feasibility of implementing high security encryption using IEC 61850 in low cost gateways suitable for securing new and existing SCADA systems. If implemented, the resulting device would embody a protocol converter and gateway based on low cost, off-the-shelf hardware. The project would implement a wide variety of cryptographic and other technologies to secure IEC 61850 and related protocols, and then evaluate the performance of these systems. The idea is to demonstrate that strong security can be implemented on small, low cost systems without compromise. If successful, this effort could yield an easily implementable, low cost means to enhance the security of electric power SCADA systems
