Enhanced cyber-physical security using attack-resistant cyber nodes and event-triggered moving target defence

A cyber-physical authentication strategy to protect power system infrastructure against false data injection (FDI) attacks is outlined. The authors demonstrate that it is feasible to use small, low-cost, yet highly attack-resistant security chips as measurement nodes, enhanced with an event-triggered moving target defence (MTD), to offer effective cyber-physical security. At the cyber layer, the proposed solution is based on the MULTOS Trust-Anchor chip, using an authenticated encryption protocol, offering cryptographically protected and chained reports at up to 12/s. The availability of the Trust-Anchors allows the grid controller to delegate aspects of passive anomaly detection, supporting local as well as central alarms. In this context, a distributed event-triggered MTD protocol is implemented at the physical layer to complement cyber side enhancement. This protocol applies a distributed anomaly detection scheme based on Holt-Winters seasonal forecasting in combination with MTD implemented via inductance perturbation. The scheme is shown to be effective at preventing or detecting a wide range of attacks against power system measurement system.