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

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.