NIST NCCoE has published the final version of NIST IR 8498, Cybersecurity for Smart Inverters: Guidelines for Residential and Light Commercial Solar Energy Systems. The use of small-scale solar energy systems to generate electricity continues to increase. This report provides seven practical cybersecurity guidelines for small-scale solar inverter implementations typically used in homes and small businesses.
The guidance was developed by examining the current smart-inverter threat landscape, currently available smart-inverter cybersecurity capabilities, and potential mitigations that system installers, homeowners, and small business owners can implement. These capabilities and mitigations were validated through testing to demonstrate their practicality. The report provides recommendations to smart-inverter manufacturers for cybersecurity capabilities needed in their products to implement the seven guidelines. These recommendations build on the Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity capability baselines defined in NIST Interagency Report (IR) 8259A and IR 8259B by providing smart-inverter-specific information.
Security and Privacy: general security & privacy, risk management
Applications: Internet of Things
Sectors: smart grid