# Optimal Communication Strategies in Networked Cyber-Physical Systems with Adversarial Elements

## TL;DR

This paper analyzes optimal communication strategies in cyber-physical systems under adversarial attacks using a game-theoretic approach, focusing on sensor networks with Gaussian sources and adversarial sensor capture.

## Contribution

It introduces a game-theoretic framework for optimal communication and coordination strategies in cyber-physical systems with adversarial elements, highlighting the role of sensor coordination.

## Key findings

- Coordination among sensors is crucial for optimal strategies.
- Adversarial sensors aim to maximize estimation error.
- The framework provides strategies for both defender and attacker.

## Abstract

This paper studies optimal communication and coordination strategies in cyber-physical systems for both defender and attacker within a game-theoretic framework. We model the communication network of a cyber-physical system as a sensor network which involves one single Gaussian source observed by many sensors, subject to additive independent Gaussian observation noises. The sensors communicate with the estimator over a coherent Gaussian multiple access channel. The aim of the receiver is to reconstruct the underlying source with minimum mean squared error. The scenario of interest here is one where some of the sensors are captured by the attacker and they act as the adversary (jammer): they strive to maximize distortion. The receiver (estimator) knows the captured sensors but still cannot simply ignore them due to the multiple access channel, i.e., the outputs of all sensors are summed to generate the estimator input. We show that the ability of transmitter sensors to secretly agree on a random event, that is "coordination", plays a key role in the analysis...