Approximate Power Grid Protection Against False Data Injection Attacks

A family of new attacks have been found against power grid systems recently which are capable of affecting power grids without being detectable via conventional means. Though powerful, the attacks rely on the attacker having complete knowledge of the power grid system. This work will evaluate the power grid resiliency countering such attacks when an attacker does not have such complete knowledge. More specifically, this paper examines the rerouting that already commonly occurs in power systems as an inherent defense against this particular class of attacks by increasing the power grid topology complexity. An algorithm is developed to calculate the probability of a successful attack given a particular topology and configuration of circuit breakers. The experimental results demonstrate that the existence of defense circuit breakers in a power grid system can lead to substantial improvements in security.