Risk Assessment of Cyber Attacks on Power Grids Considering the Characteristics of Attack Behaviors

Abstract

The quick development of smart grids coupled with IoT devices has opened breaches of security leading to cyberattacks done by attackers with different purposes. In this study, a behavior model is proposed to investigate the risk of cyber attacks on power grids, where the utility value is determined by subjective attack attitude and characteristics of candidate targets firstly, and then the behaviors of attack target selection and attack resource allocation are described by the probability response and utility attenuation model respectively based on data analysis of historical events. The simulation results on RTS79 system indicate that the risk and the vulnerable nodes of the power grid vary with the characteristics of attack behaviors and characteristic attributes of targets, which should be considered in the cyber security defense dynamically.