Blockchain-Based Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attack Detection for Photovoltaic Systems

Cybersecurity of photovoltaic (PV) systems entails a much larger scope than just encryption and firewall of communications. For instance, integrity of data in transit between inverters and a cloud server can be compromised by authorized third-party, devices, and internal network within security perimeter (i.e., man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack). To address this challenge, this paper proposes a blockchain-based MITM attack detection method for a PV system. A breakthrough method includes screening network data, network intrusion detection, and hash comparison of in-transit data using distributed ledgers. The proposed method is implemented in Internet-of-Thing (IoT) security modules as clients of a blockchain network and validated by experiments.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a blockchain-based MITM attack detection method for PV systems, which involves screening network data, network intrusion detection, and hash comparison to ensure data integrity during transit. The method is implemented in IoT security modules as clients of a blockchain network and validated through experiments.