György Dán

Stealth Attacks and Protection Schemes for State Estimators in Power Systems

State estimators in power systems are currently used to, for example, detect faulty equipment and to route power flows. It is believed that state estimators will also play an increasingly important role in future smart power grids, as a tool to optimally and more dynamically route power flows. Therefore security of the estimator becomes an important issue. The estimators are currently located in control centers, and large numbers of measurements are sent over unencrypted communication channels to the centers. We here study stealthy false-data attacks against these estimators. We define a security measure tailored to quantify how hard attacks are to perform, and describe an efficient algorithm to compute it. Since there are so many measurement devices in these systems, it is not reasonable to assume that all devices can be made encrypted overnight in the future. Therefore we propose two algorithms to place encrypted devices in the system such as to maximize their utility in terms of increased system security. We illustrate the effectiveness of our algorithms on two IEEE benchmark power networks under two attack and protection cost models.

Network-Aware Mitigation of Data Integrity Attacks on Power System State Estimation

Critical power system applications like contingency analysis and optimal power flow calculation rely on the power system state estimator. Hence the security of the state estimator is essential for the proper operation of the power system. In the future more applications are expected to rely on it, so that its importance will increase. Based on realistic models of the communication infrastructure used to deliver measurement data from the substations to the state estimator, in this paper we investigate the vulnerability of the power system state estimator to attacks performed against the communication infrastructure. We define security metrics that quantify the importance of individual substations and the cost of attacking individual measurements. We propose approximations of these metrics, that are based on the communication network topology only, and we compare them to the exact metrics. We provide efficient algorithms to calculate the security metrics. We use the metrics to show how various network layer and application layer mitigation strategies, like single and multi-path routing and data authentication, can be used to decrease the vulnerability of the state estimator. We illustrate the efficiency of the algorithms on the IEEE 118 and 300 bus benchmark power systems.

A Cyber Security Study of a SCADA Energy Management System: Stealthy Deception Attacks on the State Estimator*

A Cyber Security Study of a SCADA Energy Management System : Stealthy Deception Attacks on the State Estimator

Cache-to-Cache: Could ISPs Cooperate to Decrease Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution Costs?

We consider whether cooperative caching may reduce the transit traffic costs of Internet service providers (ISPs) due to peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution systems. We formulate two game-theoretic models for cooperative caching, one in which ISPs follow their selfish interests, and one in which they act altruistically. We show the existence of pure strategy Nash equilibria for both games, and evaluate the gains of cooperation on various network topologies, among them the AS level map of Northern Europe, using measured traces of P2P content popularity. We find that cooperation can lead to significant improvements of the cache efficiency with little communication overhead even if ISPs follow their selfish interests.

Resilience in live peer-to-peer streaming [Peer-to-Peer Multimedia Streaming]

The success of peer-to-peer overlays for live multicast streaming depends on their ability to maintain low delays and a low ratio of information loss end-to-end. However, data distribution over an overlay consisting of unreliable peers is inherently subject to disturbances. Resilience is thus inevitably a key requirement for peer-to-peer live-streaming architectures. In this article, we present a survey of the media distribution methods, overlay structures, and error-control solutions proposed for peer-to-peer live streaming. We discuss the trade off between resilience and overhead and argue that efficient architectures can be defined only through thorough performance analysis.

On the Performance of Multiple-Tree-Based Peer-to-Peer Live Streaming

In this paper we propose and analyze a generalized multiple-tree-based overlay architecture for peer-to-peer live streaming that employs multipath transmission and forward error correction. We give mathematical models to describe the stability properties of the overlay and evaluate the error recovery in the presence of node dynamics and packet losses. We show how the stability of the overlay improves with the proper allocation of the outgoing bandwidths of the peers among the trees without compromising its error correcting capability.

Interaction patterns between P2P content distribution systems and ISPs

Peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution systems are a major source of traffic in the Internet, but the application layer protocols they use are mostly unaware of the underlying network in accordance with the layered structure of the Internets protocol stack. Nevertheless, the need for improved network efficiency and the business interests of Internet service providers (ISPs) are both strong drivers toward a cross-layer approach in peer-to-peer protocol design, calling for P2P systems that would in some way interact with the ISPs. Recent research shows that the interaction, which can rely on information provided by both parties, can be mutually beneficial. In this article we first give an overview of the kinds of information that could potentially be exchanged between the P2P systems and the ISPs, and discuss their usefulness and the ease of obtaining and exchanging them. We also present a classification of the possible approaches for interaction based on the level of involvement of the ISPs and the P2P systems, and we discuss the potential strengths and the weaknesses of these approaches.

Network-layer protection schemes against stealth attacks on state estimators in power systems

The power system state estimator is an important application used to calculate optimal power flows, to maintain the system in a secure state, and to detect faulty equipment. Its importance in the operation of the smart grid is expected to increase, and therefore its security is an important concern. Based on a realistic model of the communication infrastructure used to deliver measurement data from the substations to the state estimator, in this paper we investigate the vulnerability of the power system state estimator to attacks performed against the communication infrastructure. We define security metrics that quantify the importance of individual substations and the cost of attacking individual measurements. We provide efficient algorithms to calculate these metrics, and use the metrics to show how various network layer and application layer mitigation strategies can be used to decrease the vulnerability of the state estimator. We illustrate the efficiency of the algorithms on the IEEE 118 and 300 bus benchmark power systems.

Optimal power flow: Closing the loop over corrupted data

Recently the power system state estimator was shown to be vulnerable to malicious deception attacks on the measurements, resulting in biased estimates. In this work we analyze the behavior of the Optimal Power Flow (OPF) algorithm in the presence of such maliciously biased estimates and the resulting consequences to the system operator. In particular, we characterize the set of attacks that may lead the operator to apply the erroneous OPF recommendation. Such characterization is used to improve a previously proposed security index by also considering the attack impact, which may be used for allocation and prioritization of protective measures. Additionally, we propose an analytical expression for the optimal solution of a simplified OPF problem with corrupted measurements. A small analytical example is discussed to illustrate and motivate our contributions.

The Impact of Caching on BitTorrent-Like Peer-to-Peer Systems

Peer-to-peer file-sharing systems are responsible for a significant share of the traffic between Internet service providers (ISPs) in the Internet. In order to decrease their peer-to-peer related transit traffic costs, many ISPs have deployed caches for peer-to-peer traffic in recent years. We consider how the different types of peer-to-peer caches - caches already available on the market and caches expected to become available in the future - can possibly affect the amount of inter-ISP traffic. We develop a fluid model that captures the effects of the caches on the system dynamics of peer-to-peer networks, and show that caches can have adverse effects on the system dynamics depending on the system parameters. We combine the fluid model with a simple model of inter-ISP traffic and show that the impact of caches cannot be accurately assessed without considering the effects of the caches on the system dynamics. We identify scenarios when caching actually leads to increased transit traffic. Our analytical results are supported by extensive simulations and experiments with real BitTorrent clients.