Master's thesis; Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment Tools for Energy Communities

Background
Energy communities is an area of increasing interest. There are different ways that energy communities can be described. According to European Union, they are “an effective and cost-efficient way to meet citizens' needs and expectations regarding energy sources, services and local participation”[1]. More concrete, there may be physically close energy producers in a neighbourhood with a shared connection to the grid, or a virtual community over a larger distance that manage their production and consumption together. In the CyREC research project, Cyber Resilience for Energy Communities of the Future, RISE investigates how threat analysis and risk assessment methods can be adapted to the energy community domain.

Description
The goal of this Master Thesis project is to go even deeper into the tools and methods used to identify threats and risks in these environments, which include a mixture of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) systems.

Key Responsibilities

We are looking for one or two Master Thesis student candidates to investigate these questions further:

• A comparison of threat analysis and risk assessment methods and tools, and how well they are performing in operational technology environments?
  • o Which threat analysis and risk assessment methods are the tools based on?
  • o How do the methods and tools handle the interplay between safety and cybersecurity properties?
  • o Which key features are missing?
  • o How adaptable are the tools with respect to:
    • Changes affecting the threat and risk assessments?
    • Supporting new methods and features?
  • How would a new tool look like and be implemented that addresses some of the shortcomings of current tools?
  • How could LLMs be utilized and implemented in the tool to support threat and risk assessments?

Qualifications
Candidates should have taken courses in cybersecurity (computer and/or network security). Experience or courses taken related to safety critical systems and/or AI is a merit.

Terms
RISE Dependable Transport Systems Unit is located in Borås and CyREC is a VINNOVA-funded research project coordinated by Linköping University.

• Scope: 30 credits (one full time semester). The compensation will be 30 000 SEK upon completion of a high-quality thesis.
• Location: Borås, Linköping
• Start: January 2025

Welcome with your application!
For further information and questions regarding this master thesis project, please contact:

• Thesis Supervisor: Pierre Kleberger, pierre.kleberger@ri.se, +46 10 516 51 07
• Unit Manager: Åsa Olsson, asa.olsson@ri.se

Candidates are encouraged to send in their application as soon as possible. Suitable applicants will be interviewed continuously. Last day of application is November 6, 2024. 

Keywords: Threat Analysis, Risk Assessment, Interplay, Safety, Cybersecurity, Energy Communities

[1] Directive (EU) 2019/944 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on common rules for the internal market for electricity and amending Directive 2012/27/EU