IEC 62351-4-2020 PDF

Full title and description

Power systems management and associated information exchange — Data and communications security — Part 4: Profiles including MMS and derivatives. This entry refers to the consolidated edition of IEC 62351-4 incorporating Amendment 1 (2018 edition + A1:2020), which updates profiles, cipher-suite guidance and encoding/normative references for securing MMS and MMS-derived application profiles.

Abstract

IEC 62351-4:2018 with Amendment 1 (2020) specifies security profiles and interoperability requirements for application protocols that use MMS and MMS-like payloads in power systems management. The amendment clarifies normative references (including updated X.509 references), updates TLS and cipher-suite guidance, raises certificate encoding size guidance, corrects ASN.1/encoding details, and refines end-to-end and transport-layer security mappings to improve interoperability and robustness of secure implementations.

General information

• Status: Published.
• Publication date: 17 July 2020 (Amendment 1 consolidated with IEC 62351-4:2018).
• Publisher: International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), TC 57.
• ICS / categories: 33.200 (Telecontrol / Information security and data privacy).
• Edition / version: Edition 1.0 (IEC 62351-4:2018) consolidated with Amendment 1:2020.
• Number of pages: Approximately 122 pages (consolidated national/adoption listings report 122 pages for the EN consolidated version).

Key bibliographic and stability metadata reported by the IEC webstore and national adoption catalogs are used for the entries above.

Scope

This part of IEC 62351 defines security profiles and mandatory/recommended options for protecting MMS-based protocols and derivatives used in power systems management. It provides both a compatibility mode (to interoperate with earlier TS-based implementations) and a native mode (extended feature set), and specifies transport-layer (TLS) and application-layer security requirements, certificate handling guidance, encoding clarifications and recommendations for secure algorithm selection to ensure interoperability of protected MMS communications.

Key topics and requirements

• Security profiles for MMS and MMS-derived payloads, including compatibility and native modes.
• Transport-layer requirements (TLS) and recommended/mandatory cipher-suite ordering and selection for interoperability and policy-based preference.
• Guidance on public-key certificates and X.509 handling, including support up to larger certificate encodings (interoperability ceiling guidance).
• Clarifications and corrections to ASN.1, encoding (DER/XER), and presentation syntax to reduce implementation ambiguity.
• Recommendations to disallow weak/obsolete algorithms (e.g., RC4, anonymous Diffie–Hellman) and preference for AEAD suites such as AES-GCM where appropriate.
• End-to-end (E2E) security mapping and how E2E protections interact with transport/application layer protections.

These topics summarize the amendment’s principal technical changes and the consolidated standard’s requirements.

Typical use and users

Primary users include utility system architects, protection and control equipment vendors, protocol implementers, integrators, cybersecurity teams responsible for grid communications, conformance testers and certification bodies. Typical uses are specifying and implementing secure MMS-based communications between control-center systems, substation automation components and inter-utility gateways, and establishing interoperable certificate and TLS configurations for fielded systems.

Related standards

IEC 62351-4 is part of the IEC 62351 series on data and communications security for power systems. Related parts include IEC 62351-1 (overview), -2 (glossary), -3 (profiles including TCP/IP), -5 (IEC 60870-5 and derivatives), -6 (IEC 61850 profiles), and other parts that address key management, object models and operational security. Implementers typically use IEC 62351-4 together with IEC 62351-3 and IEC 62351-6 for comprehensive coverage of transport and application profiles.

Keywords

IEC 62351, MMS, MMS derivatives, power systems security, TLS, X.509, cipher suites, ASN.1, data communications security, TC57, interoperability, end-to-end security.

FAQ

Q: What is this standard?

A: IEC 62351-4 (consolidated with Amendment 1:2020) is the part of the IEC 62351 series that specifies security profiles and interoperability rules for MMS and MMS-like application protocols used in power systems management.

Q: What does it cover?

A: It covers transport- and application-layer security profiles for MMS-based communications, including TLS/cipher-suite guidance, certificate handling and encoding clarifications, compatibility and native modes, and end-to-end security considerations to support secure, interoperable implementations.

Q: Who typically uses it?

A: Utilities, equipment vendors, systems integrators, cybersecurity engineers, and testing/certification organizations who need to design, implement or validate secure MMS communications in power-system environments.

Q: Is it current or superseded?

A: The document is the 2018 edition consolidated with Amendment 1 published on 17 July 2020. The IEC webstore lists a stability date of 2026 for the consolidated publication; users should check for any further amendments or newer editions after that date.

Q: Is it part of a series?

A: Yes — IEC 62351-4 is one part of the IEC 62351 family addressing cybersecurity for power-system information exchange; other parts cover glossary, TCP/IP profiles, IEC 61850 profiles, and protocol-specific guidance.

Q: What are the key keywords?

A: MMS, cipher suites, TLS, X.509 certificates, ASN.1/DER, interoperability, end-to-end security, power systems communication security.