Cybersecurity Roadmap for Active Buildings

The technology integrated in modern smart infrastructures makes them vulnerable to malicious cyber attacks and misuse of information systems. Active Buildings (AB) are no exception. AB implement the vision of ‘buildings as power stations’, aiming for operational efficiency in generation, storage, release, and conservation of energy collaboratively among neighbouring smart buildings. However, adversaries may exploit cyber-physical vulnerabilities on the smart infrastructure to cause service interruptions or financial losses. For this reason, it is imperative to effectively respond and devise countermeasures to deter attacks. This work presents a roadmap to guide AB’s cybersecurity efforts, adapting existing mechanisms in enterprise information systems, Cyber-Physical Systems, Internet-of-Things, and Industrial Control Systems. We aim to help power and building managers to understand trade-offs to assess risk, model threats, deploy intrusion detection, or simulate the infrastructure. Our contribution also discusses open research questions with respect to cybersecurity, highlighting needed developments for hardening AB and thwarting attacks.