# Privacy-Preserving Obfuscation of Critical Infrastructure Networks

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel privacy-preserving obfuscation mechanism for critical infrastructure networks, balancing data utility and privacy to prevent malicious exploitation while maintaining network realism.

## Contribution

It proposes a new obfuscation method using bi-level optimization that enhances accuracy and privacy in data sharing for critical infrastructure networks.

## Key findings

- Significantly reduces potential attack damage
- Maintains network realism in obfuscated data
- Effective on real energy and transportation networks

## Abstract

The paper studies how to release data about a critical infrastructure network (e.g., the power network or a transportation network) without disclosing sensitive information that can be exploited by malevolent agents, while preserving the realism of the network. It proposes a novel obfuscation mechanism that combines several privacy-preserving building blocks with a bi-level optimization model to significantly improve accuracy. The obfuscation is evaluated for both realism and privacy properties on real energy and transportation networks. Experimental results show the obfuscation mechanism substantially reduces the potential damage of an attack exploiting the released data to harm the real network.