Data Integrity Attacks Against Critical Infrastructures: A Cyber-Physical Approach

Critical infrastructures (e.g., power grids, transportation systems etc.) are increasingly becoming the target of cyber attacks. The December 2015 attack against the Ukraine’s power grid was a real-world example, which caused power outages for a large number of customers for hours. These attacks, accomplished by compromising the integrity of sensor data and/or control commands to the industrial control systems, have alerted us to a general class of attacks called data integrity attacks against cyber-physical systems (CPS).

In this talk, I will present our recent research on this topic that takes a wholistic approach to the cybersecurity problem in these systems. Specifically, I will present our work on analysing vulnerabilities in modern-day systems, attack impact analysis and proactive defense strategies to counter these threats. The application areas will include power grids and urban metro transportation systems.