The intermittent communication of power usage information in smart grids (SGs) is highly susceptible to potential cyberattacks, which is protected by classical public-key cryptosystems. However, recent advancements in the field of quantum computing have rendered these cryptosystems trivially insecure, triggering the immediate requirement for a highly resilient data communication scheme. This paper addresses the above-mentioned issue by designing a Quantum Encryption and Quantum Fourier Transformation (QFT) based secure data communication and aggregation model (QC-EAM) for SG environments. QC-EAM enables the power consumption data of the users to be encrypted using truly random encryption keys, ensuring unconditional security, while group homomorphism of Clifford Gates is utilized to achieve homomorphic evaluation of the encrypted quantum states. Moreover, a quantum-based data aggregation circuit is developed that performs QFT over the encrypted quantum states, yielding a secure and aggregated state. Furthermore, entanglement swaps-based quantum networking is considered as an enabling infrastructure for the proposed scenario, ensuring preservation of highly susceptible quantum states. The experimental evaluation of QC-EAM is achieved through classical computer-based simulations and tested on actual quantum system, provisioned through the IBM Qiskit platform. Statistical measurements of quantum circuits yield significantly accurate results, proving the validity of QC-EAM. Moreover, a thorough security analysis is also provided that confirms the perfect security achieved through maximally mixed states.
The intermittent communication of power usage information in smart grids (SGs) is highly susceptible to potential cyberattacks, which is protected by classical public-key cryptosystems. However, recent advancements in the field of quantum computing have rendered these cryptosystems trivially insecure, triggering the immediate requirement for a highly resilient data communication scheme. This paper addresses the above-mentioned issue by designing a Quantum Encryption and Quantum Fourier Transformation (QFT) based secure data communication and aggregation model (QC-EAM) for SG environments. QC-EAM enables the power consumption data of the users to be encrypted using truly random encryption keys, ensuring unconditional security, while group homomorphism of Clifford Gates is utilized to achieve homomorphic evaluation of the encrypted quantum states. Moreover, a quantum-based data aggregation circuit is developed that performs QFT over the encrypted quantum states, yielding a secure and aggregated state. Furthermore, entanglement swaps-based quantum networking is considered as an enabling infrastructure for the proposed scenario, ensuring preservation of highly susceptible quantum states. The experimental evaluation of QC-EAM is achieved through classical computer-based simulations and tested on actual quantum system, provisioned through the IBM Qiskit platform. Statistical measurements of quantum circuits yield significantly accurate results, proving the validity of QC-EAM. Moreover, a thorough security analysis is also provided that confirms the perfect security achieved through maximally mixed states.
The security of data communication in Smart Grids (SGs) is traditionally reliant on cryptosystems based on the computational difficulty of certain mathematical problems. However, the advent of quantum computers, with their unparalleled computational power, threatens the robustness of classical cryptographic methods. Despite significant research into quantum-secure solutions, limited attention has been given to quantum-based security in SGs. To address these emerging security challenges, this paper proposes a quantum-based multifaceted secure communication model (Qu-MCM) for SGs, offering unconditional security by leveraging quantum mechanical principles. The key contributions include: quantum encryption of power consumption data using truly random keys, a quantum-secure key exchange protocol between power users and utility suppliers, and data authentication and integrity verification through quantum fingerprinting. The model is experimentally evaluated via simulations on classical computer and actual quantum hardware using the IBM Qiskit platform. The experimental results show that the encryption algorithm achieves an accuracy of 81.73%, while the authentication algorithm reaches 87.4% through a probability distribution graph where accuracy signifies the dominance of correct outputs. The results demonstrate the validity of the proposed model, with a comprehensive security analysis confirming its perfect security, where perfect security is defined as the maximally mixed states achieved after encryption that is impossible to break for an eavesdropper equipped with quantum resources.
The vast amounts of data and the growing number of attacks in the smart grids (SGs) are consequences of the huge reliance on information and communication technology, that is further posing serious risks to the confidentiality and integrity of the power data. On the other hand, recent advancements in quantum cryptography are emerging as foundation for secure communication protocols, offering robust defenses against potential cyber threats in SGs. In response to the imperative challenge of secure data transmission, a quantum cryptography based unconditionally secure data transmission model is proposed that integrates quantum key distribution (QKD) with classical encryption. Furthermore, truly random encryption keys generated through quantum random number generator (QRNG) are utilized that assists to overcome the limitations of pseudo-random number generator and leads to the highly immune data security mechanism. The efficacy of proposed model is evaluated through experimental results obtained over classical simulator along with real quantum computers accessed through the IBM Qiskit platform. The statistical analysis conducted on the resulting quantum states showcases a high degree of accurate measurements, thereby confirming the relevance of the proposed work.
The IoT Smart grid systems require privacy-sensitive, scalable, and secure communication, but the traditional cryptographic methods are susceptible to quantum attacks, central failure, and high computational costs. In this paper, the author presents a multi-layered structure that uses various yet complementary approaches in order to solve these issues. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is applied to create quantum-resilient key management to provide the secure transmission against future quantum attacks. Homomorphic Encryption (HE) allows the computations to be performed on encrypted data to preserve privacy and minimize the risks of exposure at some point during the processing. Federated Learning (FL) is used to assist the decentralized intelligence, where anomaly detection models are trained together without the need of transferring sensitive raw data. The combination of the two techniques produces a hybrid architecture that is both highly secure and scalable. Experimental validation on real-world smart grid data indicates the 42% communication overhead reduction versus traditional encryption, a 35% improvement in anomaly detection with FL and strong resistance to quantum attack and side-channel attack simulation. The findings support the fact the suggested solution provides end-to-end confidentiality, integrity, and performance efficiency, which will form a basis of quantum-resilience and privacy-preserving communication in future smart grid IoT network.
The Smart Grid (SG) represents the next-generation power system in the future grid infrastructure, designed for self-healing, adaptability, and sustainability. However, the interconnected and geographically dispersed nature of SG systems introduces cybersecurity risks, potentially leading to severe incidents. Cyber attacks on SG applications could result in significant events, including outages and infrastructure damage. These attacks may compromise energy data, starting with the leakage of personal information from grid members. To address these risks, confidentiality, device authentication, and data integrity are essential, traditionally implemented through public-key cryptography (PKC). The rise of quantum computers and the potential adaptation of algorithms like Shor’s poses a threat to PKC algorithms in SG communications. In response, we propose a security protocol for post-quantum communication in SG applications, ensuring resilience against classical and quantum attacks. The protocol has been tested through rigorous informal security analysis, and comparative analysis demonstrates its scalability and effectiveness in real-world scenarios.
The smart grid (SG) embodies the future of power systems, featuring self-healing mechanisms, adaptability, and sustainability. Nevertheless, its interconnected and widely distributed architecture presents substantial cybersecurity challenges, rendering it susceptible to cyber attacks that may cause outages, infrastructure failures, and data breaches, including the exposure of personal information. Public-key cryptography (PKC) has historically been utilized to ensure confidentiality, authenticate devices, and maintain data integrity. However, the rise of quantum computing poses a serious threat to the viability of these PKC algorithms, particularly with the potential implementation of algorithms such as Shor’s algorithm. To address these vulnerabilities, we propose an innovative security protocol for post-quantum communication within SG applications, engineered to resist both classical and quantum threats. Our comparative study reveals that this protocol delivers enhanced security and improved functionality while maintaining low communication and computational costs compared to existing methods. We further demonstrate its practicality through real-time testbed experiments and implementations on a Raspberry Pi, supported by an extensive security assessment using the Scyther automated validation tool. A detailed comparison with Kyber in terms of computational efficiency, storage requirements, and implementation overhead to support our lightweight claim. Finally, a network simulation conducted using Network Simulator 3 (NS3) further demonstrates the performance of the proposed scheme, highlighting its scalability and reliability.
The development and evolution of the smart grid into complex, cyber-physical energy systems make it essential to secure?communication among the distributed components. The rise of quantum computing has made it even more pressing to develop protocols that?are secure outside the limitations of classical cryptosystems. In this paper, it proposes a quantum-assisting secure communication scheme (QASCP) to?boost the security and energy for smart grid communication systems. The proposed protocol combines quantum key distribution with lightweight entropy-based mutual authentication and dynamic session management. It is designed to defend grid assets such as control centers, smart meters, and distribute energy?resources from sophisticated adversarial models, including quantum-capable threats. The approach consists of system level simulation utilizing a?co-simulation framework customized for quantum smart grid communication. The performance of this scheme was compared?against classical and PQ lattice-based schemes in terms of the authentication latency, energy consumption, entropy preservation, and scalability to handle the load and delay effects, under the assumptions of different loading and delay scenarios. Simulation results show that QASCP is able to reduce the energy consumption and authenticity latency, simultaneously it keeps the high throughput and leaves strong entropy?under attack scenarios. The protocol is also shown to?remain robust with varying quantum bit error rates as well as having a smaller memory footprint on popular network topologies. The results provide evidence for the practical integration of?quantum-secure communication in smart grid architectures. By addressing security and performance simultaneously, the protocol?provides a path to future-proof energy networks which can support dependable operations in a quantum-enhanced environment. This could be future enhance for energy efficiency.