This hands-on course explores the cybersecurity properties and vulnerabilities of the IEEE 2030.5 protocol (also known as SEP2) as used in Distributed Energy Resource (DER) environments. Through a series of guided exercises, learners examine how the protocol's cryptographic design defends against common attacks and where those defenses break down. Topics progress from foundational concepts through realistic attack scenarios involving identity compromise and PKI trust failure, giving practitioners a clear-eyed understanding of both the protocol's guarantees and its limits.
By the end of this course, learners will be able to:
- Explain the role of IEEE 2030.5 and PKI in securing DER communications, including the purpose of certificates, certificate authorities, and relevant industry standards like California Rule 21 and CSIP.
- Assess protocol-level security guarantees in terms of the CIA Triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability), using sniffing, spoofing, and denial-of-service scenarios as test cases.
- Demonstrate the consequences of identity compromise, including how exfiltrated certificate data can be used to conduct authenticated attacks that bypass normal protocol protections.
- Manage device lifecycle security events such as deregistration, certificate revocation, reissuance, and re-registration — and understand the trade-offs of fail-open versus fail-closed configurations.
- Identify and respond to PKI trust failures, including detecting a leaked certificate authority, understanding how it can be exploited to gain illegitimate trust, and applying appropriate defenses.
Hours: 5.0