Smart Grid Digital Forensics Investigation Framework

The advancement in the development of smart grids may be carrying the risk of increased security vulnerabilities of the grid and allowing attackers to easily access the power system to either manipulate internal operation or disrupt the entire grid operations. In other words, a smart grid environment will be an important source of evidence in the event of a threat. Therefore, a systematic forensics investigation must be carried out to ensure that important steps are taken accordingly. Most digital forensics frameworks focused on the computing environment, which resulted in the absence of a knowledge base and resources to facilitate such an investigation in a smart grid environment. This study sheds light on the development of the proposed Smart Grid Digital Forensics Investigation Framework to support digital forensics investigations by taking the example of Stuxnet attacks. Existing digital forensics frameworks and models are reviewed to identify the suitability of phases to be included in the proposed framework.