Savannah State University’s Qian Chen, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science technology, and two students completed a summer research project aimed at protecting infrastructure. Chen was joined by Summer Sykes, a senior electronics engineering technology student from Atlanta, Ga., and Chelsea Calhoun, a senior in computer science technology from Jacksonville, Fla.

The SSU team worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to design and test a method for companies to know a cyber attack is affecting a supervisory control and data acquisition system. Many of the nation’s large industries and manufacturers – oil companies, wastewater facilities, electrical grids, large communication networks – use SCADA systems to remotely operate multiple locations from a single place.

SCADA systems are prime targets for cyber attacks and, according to one study, have doubled over the past year; yet, more than 30% of organizations did not know their SCADA system had even been breached.

The research conducted by Chen, Sykes and Calhoun designed a technique with high detection accuracy. Their process monitors, tracks and compares the power consumption during normal activity and during an attack. The SCADA systems can now be programmed to sense the spike in power consumption, detect a threat and alert an organization.

Chen will present the findings at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 50 in January.