"Cybersecurity Goes Undercover to Protect Electric Grid Data"

Based on one of the mysteries of human perception known as synesthesia, a researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) developed a new method to hide sensitive electric grid information from malicious actors in a cyberattack. This method involves a palette of colors that is constantly changing. The Grid Communications and Security group leader at ORNL, Peter Fuhr, was intrigued by synesthesia, a condition that causes some people to experience one sense through another, such as perceiving sounds as colors. Fuhr used this idea to encrypt the "language" of grid management software into colors. Utilities use a computer system to gather and analyze real-time data to monitor and control equipment. This system communicates with hardware using strings of letters, which can be translated into color combinations represented as bars, wheels, or swirls. The color patterns are then faded under another image, such as a colorful pointillist painting, or hidden between video feed frames. With each sensor reading, the decoding key rotates. According to Fuhr, this innovative approach has already gained attention from private companies interested in licensing. Using a secure link between ORNL and the public utility EPB of Chattanooga, the concept was tested for six months. The encoded colors are transferred via communication links among video cameras at EPB's electrical substations. This article continues to discuss the new synesthesia-inspired way to hide sensitive electric grid information from cyberattacks. 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory reports "Cybersecurity Goes Undercover to Protect Electric Grid Data"