Threat intelligence platform for the energy sector

In recent years, critical infrastructures and power systems in particular have been subjected to sophisticated cyberthreats, including targeted attacks and advanced persistent threats. A promising response to this challenging situation is building up enhanced threat intelligence (TI) that interlinks information sharing and fine-grained situation awareness. In this paper, a framework that integrates all levels of TI, ie, strategic, tactical, operational, and technical, is presented. The platform implements the centralized model of information exchange with peer-to-peer interactions between partners as an option. Several supportive solutions were introduced, including anonymity mechanisms or data processing and correlation algorithms. A data model that enables communication of cyberincident information, both in natural language and machine-readable formats, was defined. Similarly, security requirements for critical components were devised. A pilot implementation of the platform was developed and deployed in the operational environment, which enabled practical evaluation of the design. Also, the security of the anonymity architecture was analyzed.