• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.757-767
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• 2016

Password authentication is the representative user authentication method and particularly text-based passwords are most widely used. Unfortunately, most users select weak passwords and so many web sites provide a password meter that measures password strength to derive the users to select strong passwords. However, some metering results are not consistent and incorrect strength feedbacks are made. In this paper, we tackle these problems regarding password meters and present an improvement direction.

• Journal of Software Assessment and Valuation
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.111-119
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• 2019

The existing smart grid device authentication system is concentrated on DCU, meter reading FEP and MDMS, and the authentication system for smart meters is not established. Although some cryptographic chips have been developed at present, it is difficult to complete the PKI authentication scheme because it is at the low level of simple encryption. Unlike existing power grids, smart grids are based on open two-way communication, increasing the risk of accidents as information security vulnerabilities increase. However, PKI is difficult to apply to smart meters, and there is a possibility of accidents such as system shutdown by sending manipulated packets and sending false information to the operating system. Issuing an existing PKI certificate to smart meters with high hardware constraints makes authentication and certificate renewal difficult, so an ultra-lightweight password authentication protocol that can operate even on the poor performance of smart meters (such as non-IP networks, processors, memory, and storage space) was designed and implemented. As a result of the experiment, lightweight cryptographic authentication protocol was able to be executed quickly in the Cortex-M3 environment, and it is expected that it will help to prepare a more secure authentication system in the smart grid industry.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.1701-1710
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• 2012

Recently, it has been found that it is important to use a smart grid to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide. A smart grid is a digitally enabled electrical grid that gathers, distributes, and acts on information regarding the behavior of all participants (suppliers and consumers) to improve the efficiency, importance, reliability, economics, and sustainability of electricity services. The smart grid technology uses two-way communication, where users can monitor and limit the electricity consumption of their home appliances in real time. Likewise, power companies can monitor and limit the electricity consumption of home appliances for stabilization of the electricity supply. However, if information regarding the measured electricity consumption of a user is leaked, serious privacy issues may arise, as such information may be used as a source of data mining of the electricity consumption patterns or life cycles of home residents. In this paper, we propose a data transaction protocol for privacy protection in a smart grid. In addition, a power company cannot decrypt an encrypted home appliance ID without the user's password.