IEEE task force report maps cyber threats to Energy Internet systems

The IEEE Power & Energy Society Task Force has published a comprehensive technical report titled "Resilient and Secure Large-Scale Energy Internet Systems," now available on arXiv (2608.12916). Authored by 14 researchers from institutions including Cyprus, the UK, and the US, the report tackles the security challenges of the Energy Internet — a tightly coupled network of electricity, information, and market layers propelled by widespread digitalization. As grids evolve into cyber-physical systems, the attack surface expands dramatically, and this report provides a systematic characterization of that threat landscape, spanning everything from communication protocol vulnerabilities to coordinated attacks on market operations.

The report goes beyond threat enumeration. It surveys detection, assurance, and mitigation techniques, and presents modeling, control, and decision-making frameworks that explicitly capture cyber-physical interdependencies. This includes advanced storage integration, multi-dimensional resilience metrics, and electricity price forecasting models that can behave unpredictably under adversarial conditions. A dedicated section examines the risks of deploying artificial intelligence in energy systems — covering data poisoning, adversarial examples, and the need for trustworthy AI. The authors also introduce a graph-based, attack-resilient information routing approach designed to maintain communication integrity even when parts of the network are compromised. The report closes with actionable recommendations for research directions, standardization gaps, and regulatory frameworks, making it a foundational reference for engineers, policymakers, and utilities modernizing the grid.