Ioannis Zografopoulos is an assistant professor in the Engineering Department of the College of Science and Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in 2023. Prior, he graduated with B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in Computer, Communications, and Network Engineering, and an M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece, in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
His research interests include cyber-physical systems security, with an emphasis on embedded systems for industrial, distributed energy, and power grid applications.
EDUCATION
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Ph.D. candidate in Electrical & Computer Engineering, CEMSE division (Sep 2021 - Jul 2023)
Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida
Ph.D. candidate in Electrical & Computer Engineering, dep. ECE (Jan 2019 - Aug 2021)
University of Thessaly Volos, Greece
M.Sc. in Science and Technology of Electrical & Computer Engineering (Nov 2015)
University of Thessaly Volos, Greece
Diploma (5-year B.Eng. + M.Eng.) in Computer, Communications & Networks Engineering (Aug 2014)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Electric grid security and resilience with integration of renewable and distributed energy resources;
Cyberphysical systems and Internet-of-Things (IoT);
Hardware security and embedded systems security;
Industrial system and critical infrastructure security;
Real-time controller- and hardware-
Distributed Energy Resources Cybersecurity Outlook: Vulnerabilities, Attacks, Impacts, and Mitigations Ioannis Zografopoulos, Nikos D. Hatziargyriou, Charalambos Konstantinou IEEE Systems Journal, 2023 The digitization and decentralization of the electric power grid are key thrusts for an economically and environmentally sustainable future. Towards this goal, distributed energy resources (DER), including rooftop solar panels, battery storage, electric vehicles, etc., are becoming ubiquitous in power systems. Power utilities benefit from DERs as they minimize operational costs; at the same time, DERs grant users and aggregators control over the power they produce and consume. DERs are interconnected, interoperable, and support remotely controllable features, thus, their cybersecurity is of cardinal importance. DER communication dependencies and the diversity of DER architectures widen the threat surface and aggravate the cybersecurity posture of power systems. In this work, we focus on security oversights that reside in the cyber and physical layers of DERs and can jeopardize grid operations. Existing works have underlined the impact of cyberattacks targeting DER assets, however, they either focus on specific system components (e.g., communication protocols), do not consider the mission-critical objectives of DERs, or neglect the adversarial perspective (e.g., adversary/attack models) altogether. To address these omissions, we comprehensively analyze adversarial capabilities and objectives when manipulating DER assets, and then present how protocol and device-level vulnerabilities can materialize into cyberattacks impacting power system operations. Finally, we provide mitigation strategies to thwart adversaries and directions for future DER cybersecurity research.
Experimental Impact Analysis of Cyberattacks in Power Systems Using Digital Real-Time Testbeds Kalinath Katuri, Ioannis Zografopoulos, Ha Thi Nguyen, Charalambos Konstantinou 2023 IEEE Belgrade Powertech Powertech 2023, 2023 Smart grid advancements and the increased integration of digital devices have transformed the existing power grid into a cyber-physical energy system. This reshaping of the current power system can make it vulnerable to cyber-attacks, which could cause irreversible damage to the energy infrastructure resulting in the loss of power, equipment damage, etc. Constant threats emphasize the importance of cybersecurity investigations. At the same time, developing cyber-physical system (CPS) simulation testbeds is crucial for vulnerability assessment and the implementation and validation of security solutions. In this paper, two separate real-time CPS testbeds are developed based on the availability of local research facilities for impact analysis of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on microgrids. The two configurations are implemented using two different digital real-time simulator systems, one using the real-time digital simulator (RTDS) with a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) setup and the other one using OPAL-RT with ExataCPS to emulate the cyber-layer infrastructure. Both testbeds demonstrate the impact of DoS attacks on microgrid control and protection operation.
A Resource Allocation Scheme for Energy Demand Management in 6G-enabled Smart Grid Shafkat Islam, Ioannis Zografopoulos, Md Tamjid Hossain, Shahriar Badsha, Charalambos Konstantinou 2023 IEEE Power and Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference Isgt 2023, 2023 Smart grid (SG) systems enhance grid resilience and efficient operation, leveraging the bidirectional flow of energy and information between generation facilities and prosumers. For energy demand management (EDM), the SG network requires computing a large amount of data generated by massive Internet-of-things sensors and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with minimal latency. This paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based resource allocation scheme in a 6G-enabled SG edge network to offload resource-consuming EDM computation to edge servers. Automatic resource provisioning is achieved by harnessing the computational capabilities of smart meters in the dynamic edge network. To enforce DRL-assisted policies in dense 6G networks, the state information from multiple edge servers is required. However, adversaries can “poison” such information through false state injection (FSI) attacks, exhausting SG edge computing resources. Toward addressing this issue, we investigate the impact of such FSI attacks with respect to abusive utilization of edge resources, and develop a lightweight FSI detection mechanism based on supervised classifiers. Simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of DRL in dynamic resource allocation, the impact of the FSI attacks, and the effectiveness of the detection technique.
Detection of Malicious Attacks in Autonomous Cyber-Physical Inverter-Based Microgrids Ioannis Zografopoulos, Charalambos Konstantinou IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 2022 The distributed generation capabilities of microgrids (MGs) arise as essential assets in enhancing grid resilience. The integration of distributed energy sources, controllable loads, and prosumers necessitates the deployment of potent control and communication synergies. While those synergies transform MGs into cyber-physical systems through information technologies able to sense, control, and actuate local resources and loads, they inadvertently expose MGs to cyber-attack threats. Increasing the security of critical communication and control systems against “black swan” events, i.e., high-impact low-probability cyber-physical incidents, is a major priority for MG operations. Such incidents, if left unabated, can intensify and elicit system dynamics instability, eventually causing outages and system failures. In this article, we develop an integrated approach for multiagent MG systems able to perform the detection of malicious cyber-physical attacks based on subspace methods. We employ the small-signal model of an autonomous/islanded MG and consider different attack models targeting the MG’s secondary frequency control. The attack detector is constructed via identifying the stable kernel representation of the autonomous cyber-physical MG in the attack-free case. We illustrate the impact of the attack models as well as the feasibility of the developed detection method in simulation models of the Canadian urban benchmark distribution system.
Mitigation of Cyberattacks through Battery Storage for Stable Microgrid Operation Ioannis Zografopoulos, Panagiotis Karamichailidis, Andreas T. Procopiou, Fei Teng, George C. Konstantopoulos, et al. 2022 IEEE International Conference on Communications Control and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids Smartgridcomm 2022, 2022
Security assessment and impact analysis of cyberattacks in integrated T&D power systems Ioannis Zografopoulos, Charalambos Konstantinou, Nektarios Georgios Tsoutsos, Dan Zhu, Robert Broadwater 9th Workshop on Modeling and Simulation of Cyber Physical Energy Systems Mscpes 2021 Held as Part of the Cyber Physical Systems and Internet of Things Week Proceedings, 2021
Faster than real-time simulation: Methods, tools, and applications XioRui Liu, Juan Ospina, Ioannis Zografopoulos, Alonzo Russel, Charalambos Konstantinou 9th Workshop on Modeling and Simulation of Cyber Physical Energy Systems Mscpes 2021 Held as Part of the Cyber Physical Systems and Internet of Things Week Proceedings, 2021
Demo: Nano power draw in duty-cycled wireless sensor networks Giannis Kazdaridis, Ioannis Zographopoulos, Nikos Sidiropoulos, Polychronis Symeonidis, Thanasis Korakis Proceedings of the Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking MOBICOM, 2019
Demo: In-situ power consumption meter for sensor networks supporting extreme dynamic range Giannis Kazdaridis, Ioannis Zographopoulos, Polychronis Symeonidis, Panagiotis Skrimponis, Thanasis Korakis, et al. Wintech 2017 Proceedings of the 11th Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds Experimental Evaluation and Characterization Co Located with Mobicom 2017, 2017
A 16-nm FinFET 16-GHz differential LC-VCO Ioannis Zographopoulos, Fotis Plessas, Emmanouil A. Antonopoulos, Fotis Foukalas 2015 IEEE International Conference on Microwaves Communications Antennas and Electronic Systems Comcas 2015, 2015
Resilience Revisited: A Multidimensional Framework Derived from Realistic Attack Scenarios IO Romero, I Zografopoulos arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.21685 , 2026 2026
Let’s Get QUIC: Securing IP-based Industrial Protocols by Proxying JD de Hoz Diego, I Zografopoulos, A Jurcut 2026 IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC) , 2026 2026
Impact assessment of cyberattacks in inverter-based microgrids K Topallaj, C McKerrell, S Ramanathan, I Zografopoulos 2025 10th IEEE Workshop on the Electronic Grid (eGRID), 1-6 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
Event-triggered islanding in inverter-based grids I Zografopoulos, C Konstantinou Electric Power Systems Research 243, 111472 , 2025 2025 Citations: 3
Cyber-physical interdependence for power system operation and control I Zografopoulos, A Srivastava, C Konstantinou, J Zhao, AA Jahromi, ... IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 16 (3), 2554-2573 , 2025 2025 Citations: 55
Distribution system behind-the-meter ders: Estimation, uncertainty quantification, and control A Srivastava, J Zhao, H Zhu, F Ding, S Lei, I Zografopoulos, R Haider, ... IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 40 (1), 1060-1077 , 2024 2024 Citations: 48
Cyber-physical interdependence for power system operation and control AA Jahromi, A Srivastava, A Chawla, B Nguyen, B Tan, S Bu, C Li, ... IEEE Power and Energy Society , 2023 2023 Citations: 4
Distributed energy resources cybersecurity outlook: Vulnerabilities, attacks, impacts, and mitigations I Zografopoulos, ND Hatziargyriou, C Konstantinou IEEE Systems Journal 17 (4), 6695-6709 , 2023 2023 Citations: 215
Experimental impact analysis of cyberattacks in power systems using digital real-time testbeds K Katuri, I Zografopoulos, HT Nguyen, C Konstantinou 2023 IEEE Belgrade PowerTech, 1-6 , 2023 2023 Citations: 9
A resource allocation scheme for energy demand management in 6G-enabled smart grid S Islam, I Zografopoulos, MT Hossain, S Badsha, C Konstantinou 2023 IEEE Power & Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies … , 2023 2023 Citations: 21
Cybersecure and Resilient Power Systems with Distributed Energy Resources I Zografopoulos 2023 Citations: 1
Time series-based detection and impact analysis of firmware attacks in microgrids I Zografopoulos, AP Kuruvila, K Basu, C Konstantinou Energy Reports 8, 11221-11234 , 2022 2022 Citations: 19
Mitigation of cyberattacks through battery storage for stable microgrid operation I Zografopoulos, P Karamichailidis, AT Procopiou, F Teng, ... 2022 IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing … , 2022 2022 Citations: 6
Behind closed doors: Process-level rootkit attacks in cyber-physical microgrid systems S Rath, I Zografopoulos, PP Vergara, VC Nikolaidis, C Konstantinou 2022 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), 1-5 , 2022 2022 Citations: 17
Detection of malicious attacks in autonomous cyber-physical inverter-based microgrids I Zografopoulos, C Konstantinou IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 18 (9), 5815-5826 , 2021 2021 Citations: 73
Hardware-assisted detection of firmware attacks in inverter-based cyberphysical microgrids AP Kuruvila, I Zografopoulos, K Basu, C Konstantinou International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems 132, 107150 , 2021 2021 Citations: 90
Contactless technologies for smart cities: big data, IoT, and cloud infrastructures A Manimuthu, V Dharshini, I Zografopoulos, MK Priyan, C Konstantinou SN computer science 2 (4), 334 , 2021 2021 Citations: 89
Stealthy rootkit attacks on cyber-physical microgrids: Poster S Rath, I Zografopoulos, C Konstantinou Proceedings of the Twelfth ACM International Conference on Future Energy … , 2021 2021 Citations: 8
Faster than real-time simulation: Methods, tools, and applications XR Liu, J Ospina, I Zografopoulos, A Russel, C Konstantinou Proceedings of the 9th Workshop on Modeling and Simulation of Cyber-Physical … , 2021 2021 Citations: 19
Security assessment and impact analysis of cyberattacks in integrated T&D power systems I Zografopoulos, C Konstantinou, NG Tsoutsos, D Zhu, R Broadwater Proceedings of the 9th workshop on modeling and simulation of cyber-physical … , 2021 2021 Citations: 34
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Cyber-physical energy systems security: Threat modeling, risk assessment, resources, metrics, and case studies I Zografopoulos, J Ospina, X Liu, C Konstantinou IEEE Access 9, 29775-29818 , 2021 2021 Citations: 410
Consumer, commercial, and industrial iot (in) security: Attack taxonomy and case studies C Xenofontos, I Zografopoulos, C Konstantinou, A Jolfaei, MK Khan, ... IEEE Internet of Things Journal 9 (1), 199-221 , 2021 2021 Citations: 248
Distributed energy resources cybersecurity outlook: Vulnerabilities, attacks, impacts, and mitigations I Zografopoulos, ND Hatziargyriou, C Konstantinou IEEE Systems Journal 17 (4), 6695-6709 , 2023 2023 Citations: 215
Survey of machine learning methods for detecting false data injection attacks in power systems A Sayghe, Y Hu, I Zografopoulos, XR Liu, RG Dutta, Y Jin, C Konstantinou IET Smart Grid , 2020 2020 Citations: 196
Hardware-assisted detection of firmware attacks in inverter-based cyberphysical microgrids AP Kuruvila, I Zografopoulos, K Basu, C Konstantinou International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems 132, 107150 , 2021 2021 Citations: 90
Contactless technologies for smart cities: big data, IoT, and cloud infrastructures A Manimuthu, V Dharshini, I Zografopoulos, MK Priyan, C Konstantinou SN computer science 2 (4), 334 , 2021 2021 Citations: 89
Detection of malicious attacks in autonomous cyber-physical inverter-based microgrids I Zografopoulos, C Konstantinou IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 18 (9), 5815-5826 , 2021 2021 Citations: 73
Cyber-physical interdependence for power system operation and control I Zografopoulos, A Srivastava, C Konstantinou, J Zhao, AA Jahromi, ... IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 16 (3), 2554-2573 , 2025 2025 Citations: 55
Distribution system behind-the-meter ders: Estimation, uncertainty quantification, and control A Srivastava, J Zhao, H Zhu, F Ding, S Lei, I Zografopoulos, R Haider, ... IEEE Transactions on Power Systems 40 (1), 1060-1077 , 2024 2024 Citations: 48
Security assessment and impact analysis of cyberattacks in integrated T&D power systems I Zografopoulos, C Konstantinou, NG Tsoutsos, D Zhu, R Broadwater Proceedings of the 9th workshop on modeling and simulation of cyber-physical … , 2021 2021 Citations: 34
DERauth: A Battery-based Authentication Scheme for Distributed Energy Resources I Zografopoulos, C Konstantinou 2020 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI (ISVLSI), 560-567 , 2020 2020 Citations: 24
A resource allocation scheme for energy demand management in 6G-enabled smart grid S Islam, I Zografopoulos, MT Hossain, S Badsha, C Konstantinou 2023 IEEE Power & Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies … , 2023 2023 Citations: 21
Nano-things: Pushing sleep current consumption to the limits in IoT platforms G Kazdaridis, N Sidiropoulos, I Zografopoulos, P Symeonidis, T Korakis Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Internet of Things, 1-8 , 2020 2020 Citations: 21
Time series-based detection and impact analysis of firmware attacks in microgrids I Zografopoulos, AP Kuruvila, K Basu, C Konstantinou Energy Reports 8, 11221-11234 , 2022 2022 Citations: 19
Faster than real-time simulation: Methods, tools, and applications XR Liu, J Ospina, I Zografopoulos, A Russel, C Konstantinou Proceedings of the 9th Workshop on Modeling and Simulation of Cyber-Physical … , 2021 2021 Citations: 19
Evaluation of lora performance in a city-wide testbed: Experimentation insights and findings G Kazdaridis, S Keranidis, P Symeonidis, P Tzimotoudis, ... Proceedings of the 13th International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds … , 2019 2019 Citations: 18
Behind closed doors: Process-level rootkit attacks in cyber-physical microgrid systems S Rath, I Zografopoulos, PP Vergara, VC Nikolaidis, C Konstantinou 2022 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), 1-5 , 2022 2022 Citations: 17
In-situ power consumption meter for sensor networks supporting extreme dynamic range G Kazdaridis, I Zographopoulos, P Symeonidis, P Skrimponis, T Korakis, ... Proceedings of the 11th Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental … , 2017 2017 Citations: 14
eWake: A novel architecture for semi-active wake-up radios attaining ultra-high sensitivity at extremely-low consumption G Kazdaridis, N Sidiropoulos, I Zografopoulos, T Korakis arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.15969 , 2021 2021 Citations: 12
Special session: Harness the power of ders for secure communications in electric energy systems I Zografopoulos, J Ospina, C Konstantinou 2020 IEEE 38th International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD), 49-52 , 2020 2020 Citations: 12
