Security through layers in an intelligent electronic device
AssigneeElectro Industries/Gauge Tech
InventorsRory A. Koval, Hai Zhu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure provides for improving security in a meter or an intelligent electronic device (IED) through the use of a security key which is unique to each meter or IED. Such a key may be used to prevent password reuse among multiple meters. Such a key may also be used to encrypt critical components of the software, such that only when running on the correct meter can the components of the software be decrypted. Such a key may also be used to uniquely identify the device in a larger data collection and management system. The security key can also be used to prevent the direct copying of meters. The present disclosure also provides for a meter or IED that stores functional software separately from core software.
Claims23
An intelligent electronic device comprising:
- at least one sensor coupled to at least one power line of an electrical power distribution system and configured for measuring at least one power parameter of the at least one power line and generating at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one power parameter;
- at least one analog to digital converter coupled to the at least one sensor configured for receiving the at least one analog signal and converting the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal;
- at least one first processor configured for executing at least one application, the at least one application requiring a security key;
- at least one second processor in communication with the at least one first processor, the at least one second processor configured to receive a message from the at least one first processor, retrieve the security key from at least one location, decrypt the message and return the decrypted message to the at least one first processor.
An intelligent electronic device comprising:
- at least one sensor coupled to at least one power line of an electrical power distribution system and configured for measuring at least one power parameter of the at least one power line and generating at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one power parameter;
- at least one analog to digital converter coupled to the at least one sensor configured for receiving the at least one analog signal and converting the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal;
- at least one processing device configured to execute a plurality on instructions to implement a general purpose operating system for executing at least two applications, wherein a first application operates on a secure layer of the operating system and a second application operates on an insecure layer of the operating system, wherein each of the applications is independent of the other application.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.