Physical Memory Collection and Analysis in Smart Grid Embedded System

Unlike the existing electric grid, the smart grid has a variety of functions that enable electric utility suppliers and consumers to perform dual exchanges of real-time information by adding IT technology. Therefore, the systems of smart grid suppliers and those of users are always connected through a network, which means that the systems related to the smart grid could become targets of malicious attackers. The various smart grid systems could have different hardware configuration from those of general systems, but their fundamental operating mechanism is the same as that of the general computer system. When a system is operating, its information and the data used by a program are loaded into the system’s memory. In this paper, we studied the method of physical memory collection and analysis in smart grid embedded systems in order to help investigate crimes related to smart grids. In addition, we verify the method studied in this paper through the collection and analysis of physical memory in the virtual Linux environment using a virtual machine.