The need for an energy transition in Europe, and worldwide, is becoming major, and is faced by significant and far-reaching challenges. More than ever, transportation, communications, resource management (water and air), and even agriculture are enabled by modern electrical power and energy systems (EPESs) promoting automation. It is clear that energy is going more to be electrical and this is a great chance to integrate a higher share of renewables, promoting a more efficient and decentralized energy system, by involving advanced digital technologies and systems such as smart devices, faster and more flexible gateways, smart meters, and Internet of things (IoT). However, this transition comes with a significant cost: The need for cyber-defense measures, strategies, algorithms, schemes, tools, and frameworks to maintain or improve the infrastructure’s security posture.

The electric smart grid (ESG) is a modern EPES. This endeavor constitutes the evolution of the traditional electric grid, focusing on generating and conditioning electricity, while efficiently distributing, controlling, and monitoring it in real-time. Being beneficial not only for power industries, but also for consumers, ESGs also aim to preserve information privacy and offer protection against intrusions. However, due to their critical nature, vast scale and their expanded attack surface, ESGs are bound to face existing and evolving cyberthreats targeting vulnerable deployments. Recently ESG infrastructures have faced several cyberattacks that have raised questions regarding security inefficiencies and their large impact on system robustness, productiveness, and integrity.

This Special Issue seeks to make an in-depth, critical contribution to this evolving field of cybersecurity in EPES. In the context of this Special Issue, we intend to bring together state-of-the-art research contributions providing new insights in securing the EPES from data breaches, managing threats, preventing and detecting cyber intrusions, and preserving sensitive and private information. The topics that can be addressed include (but are not limited to) the following:

- Intrusion detection systems and big data analytics for accurate anomaly detection for smart grids.
- Cybersecurity mechanisms, tools, and frameworks in modern smart grids.
- Anonymity in modern smart grids.
- Privacy-preserving tools, frameworks, and schemes in modern smart grids.
- Security information and event management in modern smart grids.
- Privacy standards and certificates for smart grids and energy networks.
- State of the art privacy-preserving mechanisms and techniques in smart grids and energy networks.
- Modern and advanced access control schemes for modern smart grids for safeguarding energy network reliability and integrity.
- Blockchain technologies for accessing and sharing energy data in modern smart grids.
- Anonymous communication channels in smart grids and energy networks.
- Trust management and mechanisms in modern smart grids.
- Recent cybersecurity incidents and data breaches in smart grids and energy domains.
- Security certification processes in electric smart grids.
- GDPR-compliant mechanisms and schemes in critical infrastructure and modern smart grids.
- Security information and event management tools for critical infrastructure and modern smart grids.
- Light encryption and new cryptography methods in electrical power and energy systems.
- Homomorphic encryption in modern smart grids and energy systems.
- Big data analytics, machine learning tools, and deep learning techniques for anomaly detection in smart grids and energy systems.
- Cyber threat intelligence management and sharing in smart grids.
- Risk management in modern EPESs.
- Security and privacy by design in smart grids.
- Security metrics and evaluation in smart grids.
- Deception mechanisms in smart grids.

Guest Editors:
Dr. Panagiotis Sarigiannidis, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Dr. Thomas Lagkas, Department of Computer Science, International Hellenic University, Greece
Dr. Konstantinos Rantos, Department of Computer Science, International Hellenic University, Greece
Dr. Francisco Ramos, Schneider Electric, Charles Darwin s/n, Edificio Bogaris, Spain