Smart Grid is a modern electric power infrastructure that incorporates elements of traditional power systems and information and communication technology (ICT) with the aim to improve the reliability, efficiency and safety as crucial requirements of critical infrastructure systems. Relying on the ICT, Smart Grid exposes electric power systems to new security issues and vulnerabilities over the network. Therefore, the security is becoming an increasing concern at both physical and information levels. Access controls are one of the most important aspects of information security. Role-based access control (RBAC) model is widely used in complex systems that are characterized by many participants. However, the existing models are not suitable for critical infrastructure systems with specialized features, such as a high number of devices dispersed over the vast geographical regions in "an Internet-like distributed environment". In this paper, access control mechanism optimized for Smart Grid systems is developed considering the regional division and concept of areas of responsibility (AOR). To this end, the standardized RBAC model will be extended to provide an efficient and consistent policy with greater level of granularity from the aspect of resource protection. The proposed RBACAOR model is formally described and then applied to the smart grid environment.
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