Moving Target Defense Against Adversarial False Data Injection Attacks in Power Grids

Machine-learning (ML)-based detectors have been shown to be effective in detecting stealthy false data injection attacks (FDIAs) that can bypass conventional bad data detectors (BDDs) in power systems. However, ML models are also vulnerable to adversarial attacks. A sophisticated perturbation signal added to the original BDD-bypassing FDIA can conceal the attack from ML-based detectors. In this article, we develop a moving target defense (MTD) strategy to defend against adversarial FDIAs in power grids. We first develop an MTD-strengthened deep neural network (DNN) model, which deploys a pool of DNN models rather than a single static model that cooperate to detect the adversarial attack jointly. The MTD model pool introduces randomness to the ML model’s decision boundary, thereby making the adversarial attacks detectable. Furthermore, to increase the effectiveness of the MTD strategy and reduce the computational costs associated with developing the MTD model pool, we combine this approach with the physics-based MTD, which involves dynamically perturbing the transmission line reactance and retraining the DNN-based detector to adapt to the new system topology. Simulations conducted on IEEE test bus systems demonstrate that the MTD-strengthened DNN achieves up to 94.2% accuracy in detecting adversarial FDIAs. When combined with a physics-based MTD, the detection accuracy surpasses 99%, while significantly reducing the computational costs of updating the DNN models. This approach requires only moderate perturbations to transmission line reactances, resulting in minimal increases in optimal power flow cost.