# Analysis of Cryptographic Algorithms to Improve Cybersecurity in the Industrial Electrical Sector
## 5 Discussion  
Cybersecurity in the industrial world is a branch that must constantly evolve, since at the same time cyber attackers propose new and sophisticated hacking tools against public infrastructure. It was understandable that cybersecurity was minimal in these industrial electrical environments, which seemed far away and difficult to attack. However, with the appearance of the Stuxnet, BlackEnergy and CrashOverride malware, it has become clear that these cyber attacks are a reality. And even more so in the IEC61850 standard, since by following communication protocols in a standardized way to achieve interoperability, the possibilities of attacks are increased if it is understood how the semantics of these protocols work. It can be seen that changes in the messages can lead to undesirable openings of breakers. Cryptography adapts very well to the IEC61850 standard since, thanks to the different cryptographic algorithms, it is easy to notice a change, even if it is minor, in the messages sent on the network. The use of both symmetric and asymmetric keys ensures that there is no one in the middle capable of modifying the messages. These digital security methodologies are becoming more relevant every day since IEC61850 is growing rapidly from the automation of substations towards the complete domain of the administration and control of electrical power systems, where some sensitive data that requires privacy is sent through the GOOSE protocol. With respect to what IEC62351 and IEC61850-90-5 propose for the digital security of the GOOSE, SV, R-GOOSE, and R-SV protocols, AES algorithms for confidentiality and HMAC or GMAC for integrity and authenticity of these communication protocols do not affect the general performance of the communication and their times adapt to the temporal requirements of maximum 3 ms for these protocols, so confidentiality should be mandatory as is integrity and authenticity in GOOSE and SV according to IEC62351. Also, it has become evident that asymmetric key cryptographic algorithms, such as digital signatures, do not meet these temporal requirements, so they cannot be used. Therefore, using only symmetrical key algorithms is the option that best suits substation communication under the IEC61850 standard. Regarding the comparison of the AES algorithm in its various formats concerning the ChaCha20/Poly1305 algorithms in their different configurations, the following comments can be made: \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt}} \hline \hline
**AEAD Algorithm** & **Frame Size (bytes)** & **Reference** & **AEAD Generation Time (ms)** & **Verification Time (ms)** & **Communication Delay (ms)** & **End-to-End Delay (ms)** \\ \hline ChaCha20 Poly1305 & 213 & \begin{tabular}{c} Virtual machine, \\ vCPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, \\ 512 MB RAM \\ \end{tabular} & 0.0145 & 0.016 & 0.058 & 0.0885 \\ AES128 HMAC-SHA256 & 222 & \
\begin{tabular}{c} Virtual machine, 1 \\ vCPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, \\ 512 MB RAM \\ \end{tabular} & 0.114 & 0.121 & 0.060 & 0.295 \\ AES128 HMAC-SHA256 & 222 &
\begin{tabular}{c} Virtual machine, 1 \\ vCPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, \\ 512 MB RAM \\ \end{tabular} & 0.0909 & 0.1047 & 0.0779 & 0.2735 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 8: GOOSE frame with AEAD digital security. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt} p{56.9 pt}} \hline \hline
**AEAD Algorithm** & **Frame Size (bytes)** & **Reference** & **AEAD Generation Time (ms)** & **Verification Time (ms)** & **Communication Delay (ms)** & **End-to-End Delay (ms)** \\ \hline ChaCha20 Poly1305 & 239 &
\begin{tabular}{c} Virtual machine, \\ 1 vCPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, \\ 512 MB RAM \\ \end{tabular} & 0.0147 & 0.0186 & 0.11 & 0.1427 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 9: R-GOOSE frame with AEAD digital security. * AES is suitable encryption for most modern devices, especially those with Intel processors, which have AES hardware support, making AES operations efficient.