Protecting Smart Grid Digital Twins from Dark Intelligence Using Firewalls and Intrusion Detection Systems

With increasingly advanced cyber threats targeting critical infrastructure, firewalls and Intrusion Detection/Intrusion Prevention Systems are crucial for securing smart grids. This chapter covers the functions, architectures and constraints of these technologies in critical areas such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition networks and advanced metering infrastructure systems. It illustrates how network segmentation and micro-segmentation help achieve better containment of lateral movement and facilitate the adoption of next-generation Zero Trust architectures. The chapter emphasizes lessons learned from real large-scale grid events, such as the Ukraine 2015 attack, and highlights analytics-driven solutions such as machine learning-based anomaly detection to improve resilience. It covers cryptography and authentication and how they are implemented in smart grids. The chapter explores data-driven threat analysis for smart grids to support improved cybersecurity. It concludes by presenting key findings and identifying future research directions.