In the PHOENIX platform architecture, Secure and Persistent Communications (SPC) layer, as also reflected in its name, offers security over legacy protocols, as well as data persistency. More precisely, the SPC layer adopts a data-centric approach based on federated Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) to achieve a higher degree of persistency, traceability, availability, integrity and interoperability in the context of data communications.

The 22nd Days of Energy Conference took place on 23rd and 24th November 2020 as an online conference and was organized by Slovenian media company Finance (https://dnevi-energetikov.si/). Days of Energy is a central event for energy managers and experts from Slovenian companies, research institutions and all those who operate on the principle of efficient energy use.

In October 2020, BTC Company, as a sponsor, financially and substantively supported the implementation of the Conference 24/7/365 (https://www.gzs.si/Dogodki/2-10-2020/konferenca-247365) and the CyberNight event (https://cybernight.org),  organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia and Digital Innovation Hub of Slovenia.

The H2020 project DEFENDER (Grant n° 740898) has reached its final review September 18th. Being part of the H2020-CIP-2016-2017, the project focuses on the use of innovative technologies to handle cyber-physical attacks on critical energy infrastructures. It involves 18 partners, including several partners from the PHOENIX consortium (RWTH, SingularLogic, ASM Terni, BFP, Elektro-Ljubljana and Thales). DEFENDER has developed tools that will be used as inspirations in the project PHOENIX, including the cosimulator, the CEI Incidents Information Sharing Platform, the Incident Detection Framework and the Incident Mitigation Framework.

The Phoenix LSP2 is currently being organised by PPC S.A. Greece. Hydroelectric Power Plants (HPP’s) participating in LSP2 communicate via optical fibres. We review briefly the possibility of eavesdropping on optical fibres, a process known as fibre tapping. Moreover we report on some recent advances on MCDA algorithms which are a key ingredient in Phoenix.

In cases where a cyberattack is performed on critical infrastructures, for instance Energy Infrastructures in the PHOENIX project, these attacks must be correctly and quickly handled to avoid disasters. In this setting Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) tools can help take good decision in a very short timeframe.

Electric mobility will not only revolutionize the energy market and energy infrastructure but also the way of moving, as it will be completely digital enabling a complex integration of automotive products within the internet of things; this clearly presents new targets for cyber criminals to exploit. Just like any other machine on the network, everything on the portfolio of electric mobility, from charging stations to electric vehicles, can present security vulnerabilities.