Network Intrusion Detection with Rhebo support

Stadtwerke Bochum Netz

Stadtwerke Bochum Holding has been a reliable supply partner for all Bochum residents since 1855. Today, Stadtwerke Bochum provides around 3,600 GWh of electricity and around 2,900 GWh of gas every year. It also provides water, district heating, telecommunications products, and solutions for the expansion of e-mobility. As a modern, customer-oriented company, Stadtwerke Bochum actively addresses the requirements and challenges of the times.

Secure Energy Supply For Over 1 Million People

Thüringer Energienetze GmbH & Co. KG

TEN Thüringer Energienetze is the largest distribution network operator in the German federal state of Thuringia. Its networks reliably supply more than 1.1 million people, the domestic economy and downstream distributors with energy. TEN provides all infrastructure services for the supply of electricity and natural gas, the connection of decentralized energy resources and, as part of its services, network operation for third parties.

Intrusion Detection & Mitigation

sonnen GmbH

Since 2018, Sonnen GmbH has been the first and so far only provider in Germany to connect private home storage systems to form a virtual power plant. Sonnen GmbH is building an energy system that provides clean electricity at exactly the right time and where it is needed. A system that enables cost benefits for everyone while relieving the strain on the power grid. In addition, the sonnenVPP plays an important role in the energy transition. By stabilizing the energy grids on three continents, the company is ensuring that more and more renewable energies can be connected to the grid, thus accelerating the transition to clean energy.

Mohamed Harrou

Head of SCADA

BayWa r.e. Data Services GmbH

»The simple integration of the Rhebo solution into our SystemSafe infrastructure on INSYS icom gateways enables us to fully secure all remote-controlled wind and solar parks against technical failures and cyberattacks without significant additional effort.«

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Details

Initial situation and challenge

The BayWa r.e. AG designs, builds and operates wind farms and photovoltaic (PV) parks worldwide. 99 % of technical operations management, servicing and maintenance are carried out via remote access. This makes the wind farms and PV parks subject to a particularly high threat exposure. In addition to the protection of sensitive data, the BayWa r.e. cybersecurity strategy above all focuses on plant availability, fleet protection and security of supply. BayWa r.e. had already implemented its own security solution for this purpose. This ensured both secure and reliable data transmission and continuous monitoring of performance data. The Smart Energy Gateway MRX from INSYS icom was used as the core element of these functionalities. In a field test, these functionalities were amended by an ICS monitoring with anomaly detection by Rhebo. The aim was to extend the security capabilities to real-time detection of novel attack patterns, advanced persistent threats and technical error states on the distributed energy resources.

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Comprehensive protection against cyberattacks

Detect and stop any change of communication pattern between the globally distributed energy resources.

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Optimised resource planning of service technicians

Proactively detect and localise defects and misconfigurations on devices to trigger maintenance before device failure.

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Easy integration in existing infrastructure

Reduce complexity and costs of operations with Defense-in-Depth security concept on a single device.

Solution

RISK AND VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS

Rhebo Industry 4.0 Stability and Security Audit

Analysis of deployed assets and existing communication structures;
Evaluation of threats for security and availability of wind farms and PV parks;
Definition of specific measures.

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GLOBAL CYBERSECURITY

Rhebo Industrial Protector Software Integration

Real-time identification of cyberattacks, vulnerabilities and technical error states;
24/7 security monitoring on INSYS icom gateways with extended security functions for SystemSafe architecture.

Implementation and findings

The ICS monitoring with anomaly detection Rhebo Industrial Protector was integrated as a software sensor on the existing INSYS icom Smart Energy Gateways MRX. No additional hardware had to be installed in the distributed infrastructure. At this point, Rhebo continuously monitors and analyses the entire communication between servers, control center and energy resources. In the first step, the existing communication behaviour at a wind farm as well as a PV park was recorded over several days and analysed in detail. The analysis showed that almost three-quarters of all traffic was related to vendor communication between devices and vendor servers. Rhebo identified several previously unknown security risks. Among others, the anomaly detection found communication via an unprotected FTP server with outdated firmware, unencrypted data transfer as well as private communication via a Whatsapp client. In addition, communication errors and failed connection attempts were identified which affected network quality. All anomalies were subsequently corrected.

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