Assessment of Cyber Vulnerabilities and Countermeasures for GPS-Time Synchronized Measurements in Smart Grids

We aim at expanding the horizon of existing research on cyberattacks against the time-syncrhonized devices such as PMUs and PDCs, along with corresponding countermeasures. We develop a PMU-PDC cybersecurity testbed at Virginia Tech Power and Energy Center (PEC) lab. The testbed is able to simulate real-world GPS-spoofing attack (GSA) and false data injection attack (FDIA) scenarios. Moreover, the testbed can incorporates cyberattack detection algorithm in pseudo real-time. After that, we propose three stealthy attack scenarios that exploit the vulnerabilities of time-synchronization for both PMU and PDC. The next part of this dissertation is the enhancement of Hankel-matrix based bad data detection model. The existing general Hankel-matrix based bad data detection model provide satisfactory performance. However, it fails in differentiating GPS-spoofing attack from FDIA. We propose an enhanced phase angle Hankel-matrix model that can conclusively identify GPS-spoofing attack. Furthermore, we reduce the computational burden for Hankel-matrix based bad data and cyberattack detection models. Finally, we verify the effectiveness of our enhanced Hankel-matrix model for proposed stealthy attack scenarios.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Khan, Imtiaj

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Centeno, Virgilio A.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Zhang, Yuhao
• De La Reelopez, Jaime
• Liu, Chen-Ching
• Viswanath, Bimal

• PMU
• GPS-spoofing
• Hankel-matrix
• Cyberattack
• Testbed

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:41162

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/120578