Charalambos (Harrys) Konstantinou

March 2026

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  AI-based hydrogen plant models improve power grid stability

  1 min read · Wed, Mar 18 2026

  News Clip News

  Green Hydrogen energy storage cyber-physical systems digital twins

  Realistic AI models of hydrogen plants help stabilize power grids with high levels of renewable energy.

October 2024

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  Cyber resilience matters: KAUST R&D strengthens KSA systems amid IT outages

  1 min read · Tue, Oct 8 2024

  News Clip News

  KAUST is leading efforts to enhance cybersecurity in Saudi Arabia and beyond, particularly in the wake of recent incidents like the CrowdStrike software disruption, by conducting cutting-edge research aimed at securing critical infrastructure, developing practical solutions for vulnerabilities, and fostering collaboration between academia, industry, and government to build resilient digital systems essential for national security.

January 2024

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  The KAUST SENTRY team cracks the code of success at CSAW'23

  4 min read · Thu, Jan 18 2024

  Awards News

  KAUST SENTRY team dominate CSAW'23 with back-to-back wins in hardware security and robotics challenges.

October 2023

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  Outsmarting cyberattacks on microgrids

  2 min read · Sun, Oct 8 2023

  News

  A residual-based approach that detects and corrects voltage and frequency anomalies could protect power grids against covert cyberattacks.
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  Distributed Energy Resources Cybersecurity Outlook: Vulnerabilities, Attacks, Impacts, and Mitigations

  1 min read · Sun, Oct 1 2023

  News

  cybersecurity cyber-physical energy systems distributed energy resources Cyber attacks and defenses

  The digitization and decentralization of the electric power grid represent crucial steps toward achieving both economic and environmental sustainability. In pursuit of this objective, distributed energy resources (DERs), such as rooftop solar panels, battery storage systems, and electric vehicles, are increasingly integrated into power systems. These DERs offer several advantages to power utilities by reducing operational costs and deferring investments for the expansion of the power system network while also affording users and aggregators greater control over their electricity generation and

April 2023

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  An Effective Security Scheme for Attacks on Sample Value Messages in IEC 61850 Automated Substations

  1 min read · Sun, Apr 30 2023

  News

  cybersecurity cyber-physical energy systems iec61850 substations

  The trend of transforming substations into smart automated facilities has led to their swift digitalization and automation. To facilitate data exchange among equipment within these substations, the IEC 61850 standard has become the predominant standard. However, this standardization has inadvertently made these substations more susceptible to cyberattacks, which is a significant concern given the confidential information that is transmitted. As a result, cybersecurity in substations is becoming an increasingly critical topic. IEC 62351 standard provides guidelines and considerations for

December 2022

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  A catalyst for innovation and discovery  

  4 min read · Wed, Dec 14 2022

  News

  The KAUST ECCS workshop brought together a host of international, in-Kingdom and University experts to exchange their expertise. Workshop speakers covered future challenges in designing embedded and cyber-connected systems that can scale efficiently and operate securely and resiliently.
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  Simple hardware to defend microgrid attacks

  2 min read · Mon, Dec 5 2022

  News

  cybersecurity hardware security

  An inexpensive piece of hardware integrated with solar panel controllers can protect isolated power networks from cyberattacks.

November 2022

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  KAUST SENTRY team wins prestigious CSAW'22 embedded system hacking competition

  3 min read · Sun, Nov 20 2022

  Awards News

  KAUST Ph.D. students from the KAUST Secure Next Generation Resilient Systems (SENTRY) Lab recently won the CSAW Cybersecurity Games & Conference’s (CSAW'22) "Hack My Robot Challenge (HMR)."

October 2022

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  Mitigation of Cyberattacks through Battery Storage for Stable Microgrid Operation

  1 min read · Sat, Oct 29 2022

  News

  cybersecurity cyber-physical energy systems Cyber attacks and defenses

  Mitigation of Cyberattacks through Battery Storage for Stable Microgrid Operation: Power grids are undergoing radical changes to meet energy demands, comply with environmental regulations, and improve the quality of service and system resilience. The inclusion of information and communication technologies and embedded devices enables the remote coordination, and control of microgrids (MG) and has transformed traditional power systems into cyber-physical systems. The security of MG-enabled power systems should not be overlooked given the plethora of cyberattacks against this pillar of critical
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  A Digital Twin for cybersecurity in IoT devices

  1 min read · Wed, Oct 26 2022

  News

  IoT cybersecurity communication networks Runtime verification

  Security decoupling in IoT communications is enforced with a Digital Twin that guarantees internal traffic isolation and immediate action if any unauthorized communication attempt is detected

March 2022

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  Load-Altering Attacks Against Power Grids under Low-Inertia Conditions

  1 min read · Thu, Mar 10 2022

  News

  Load-altering attacks cybersecurity cyber-physical energy systems

  Load-Altering Attacks Against Power Grids under COVID-19 Low-Inertia Conditions: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our society by forcing shutdowns and shifting the way people interacted worldwide. In relation to the impacts on the electric grid, it created a significant decrease in energy demands across the globe. Recent studies have shown that the low demand conditions caused by COVID-19 lockdowns combined with large renewable generation have resulted in extremely low-inertia grid conditions. In our work, in collaboration with Subhash Lakshminarayana, University of Warwick, UK, and Juan

February 2022

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  Blocking microgrid cyberattacks to keep the power flowing

  1 min read · Tue, Feb 15 2022

  News

  cybersecurity smart grids resilience Cyber attacks and defenses

  Power grids have become far more complex in recent decades due to energy demands, environmental regulations and small-scale renewable energy systems that turn businesses and individuals into combined consumer-producers. One way to ensure that power supplies remain resilient is to create small groups of sources and loads called microgrids. Microgrids can operate independently of the main grid when required, such as supporting hospitals during natural disasters, for example. As microgrids grow more complex, they require sophisticated computer networks to coordinate, control and distribute

January 2022

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  Hardware-based Malware Detectors Actually Work: Transition to Practice After a Decade of Research

  1 min read · Sun, Jan 30 2022

  News

  hardware security

  HPC-based Malware Detectors Actually Work: Transition to Practice After a Decade of Research: Our recent work has come out as the result of our research on HPC (hardware performance counters) security in the last decade. During this time, HPC-based malware detection transitioned from academic research through government transition to industry adoption. In this paper, we outline this evolution by presenting use cases on critical power grid infrastructure protection as part of DARPA RADICS program, as well as describing how HPCs are utilized within Intel’s HPC-based Threat Detection Technology

December 2021

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  Secure Firmware Updates on Embedded Systems

  1 min read · Tue, Dec 21 2021

  News

  firmware updates embedded systems IoT hardware security

  With the advancement of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology, embedded devices have increasingly permeated our daily lives. Such devices allow physical objects to become integrable with information. As a result, embedded devices are increasingly interdependent and, in many cases, important to our safety. For example, critical domains such as Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are being integrated into Industrial IoT (IIoT) embedded systems in order to augment traditional control systems with wireless sensing services and provide better automation through multiple sensors and measurement points

November 2021

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  KAUST SENTRY team wins 2021 Cybersecurity Games & Conference Embedded Security Challenge

  3 min read · Wed, Nov 24 2021

  News

  resilience cybersecurity

  The SENTRY Lab team wins the 18th annual CSAW Cybersecurity Games & Conference’s (CSAW '21) Embedded Security Challenge (ESC).

October 2021

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  Meet KAUST new student: Ioannis Zografopoulos

  2 min read · Wed, Oct 6 2021

  News

  cyber-physical systems embedded systems cybersecurity

  Ioannis Zografopoulos is a Ph.D. student who joined KAUST this fall as a Ph.D. candidate and member of the Secure Next Generation Resilient Systems (SENTRY) Lab under the supervision of Professor Charalambos Konstantinou. Zografopoulos believes that KAUST's renowned faculty, global reputation and research infrastructure make the University the ideal environment for him to develop high-quality, impactful research.

September 2021

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  Three papers accepted to SmartGridComm 2021

  1 min read · Sun, Sep 19 2021

  News

  smart grids cybersecurity resilience

  Three papers accepted to SmartGridComm 2021. 1) " CHIMERA: A Hybrid Estimation Approach to Limit the Effects of False Data Injection Attacks on Electric Power Grid" in collaboration with Yier Jin's group from University of Florida. 2) " Cyber-Physical Disaster Response of Power Supply Using Centralised-to-Distributed Framework" in collaboration with Fei Teng's group from Imperial College London. 3) " Attack Detection and Localization in Smart Grid with Image-based Deep Learning" in collaboration with Mostafa Mohammadpourfard's group from Istanbul Technical University.
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  Meet KAUST new student: Alyah Alfageh

  1 min read · Tue, Sep 14 2021

  News

  Alyah Alfageh is an electrical and computer engineering graduate who joined KAUST this fall from Effat University, Saudi Arabia. Alyah joined KAUST as a M.S. student and member of the Secure Next Generation Resilient Systems (SENTRY) Lab under the supervision of Professor Charalambos Konstantinou.
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  Prior Information Makes Power Grids More Resilient

  1 min read · Fri, Sep 3 2021

  News

  resilience

  The power grid infrastructure is a large-scale, heterogeneous, and complex cyber-physical system which forms the lifeline of modern societies. The trend of tight coupling of physics, communication and computation in cyber-physical energy systems (CPES) is evident by the inclusion of numerous measurement sensors. This contributes to enhancing the monitoring and control functionalities of CPES. At the same time, the occurrence of adverse effects constitutes a vital dimension of CPES operation. Increasing the resilience of critical energy systems of key importance for safeguarding the national