An information theoretic vulnerability metric for data integrity attacks on smart grids

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new information theoretic vulnerability index (VuIx) to quantify and rank the susceptibility of power system measurements to data integrity attacks, aiding in enhancing grid security.

Contribution

It proposes the VuIx metric based on information theory to evaluate measurement vulnerability and demonstrates its application on IEEE test systems for the first time.

Findings

Power injection measurements are more vulnerable than power flow measurements.

The VuIx effectively ranks measurement vulnerability levels.

Numerical evaluations confirm the metric's utility in real test systems.

Abstract

A novel metric that describes the vulnerability of the measurements in power systems to data integrity attacks is proposed. The new metric, coined vulnerability index (VuIx), leverages information theoretic measures to assess the attack effect on the fundamental limits of the disruption and detection tradeoff. The result of computing the VuIx of the measurements in the system yields an ordering of their vulnerability based on the level of exposure to data integrity attacks. This new framework is used to assess the measurement vulnerability of IEEE 9-bus and 30-bus test systems and it is observed that power injection measurements are overwhelmingly more vulnerable to data integrity attacks than power flow measurements. A detailed numerical evaluation of the VuIx values for IEEE test systems is provided.