On topology attack of a smart grid

Cyber attacks on a smart grid aiming at misleading the control center with incorrect topology information are considered. In such attacks, an adversary intercepts network and meter data from the remote terminal units, modifies part of them, and forwards the modified data to the control center. A necessary and sufficient condition for an undetectable topology attack is presented, and an undetectable attack that requires the modification of only a few meter data is proposed. When the adversary has limited local information, a heuristic attack strategy is proposed. The proposed attacks are tested with IEEE 14-bus and 118-bus systems, and their effect on real-time locational marginal pricing is examined.