Authors : Bruce Byamungu; Moses Mupeta

Volume/Issue : Volume 11 - 2026, Issue 6 - June

Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/5dy5pnrb

Scribd : https://tinyurl.com/4n88ycej

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/26jun263

Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.

Abstract : The critical infrastructures cybersecurity must be guaranteed as Zambia's adoption of Smart Grid technology progresses. While improving the efficiency and dependability of electricity distribution smart grids also make the power grid more vulnerable to cyberattacks on communication protocols like Modbus. In this paper, a virtualized Smart Grid environment based on the Zambian Grid is used to simulate and analyze Modbus protocol cyberattacks. A variety of cyberattacks were launched using a virtualized infrastructure to mimic possible threats and the corresponding grid responses were tracked. According to the findings, the Modbus protocol is vulnerable, and strong cybersecurity measures are required to safeguard the availability and integrity of Smart Grids. We validate the proposed testbed architecture by performing and analyzing a representative cyberattack in the developed environment, thus showing the principles for the analysis of other possible cybernetic attacks. The findings suggest future work for improving cybersecurity in Smart Grid implementations and offer a framework for bolstering cyber defense tactics in Zambian power systems.

Keywords : Smart Grid, Cyber-Attacks, Modbus Protocol, Virtual Environment, Zambian Grid, Cybersecurity, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Denial of Service (DoS), Man-in-the-Middle (MitM).

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