Security Challenges of Networked Control Systems

A Secure Control Design for Networked Control Systems with Linear Dynamics under a Time-Delay Switch Attack

“…Despite all of the benefits of NCSs, including that they are fast, reliable, and have remote capability, NCSs are vulnerable to cyber disruptions and threats, since NCSs are highly dependent on information, communication, and cyber interfaces [1][2][3]. NCSs are used in critical infrastructures, and their security is categorized as one of the important concerns in the nation.…”

“…Specifically, delays can cause catastrophic failures in the systems that are under control. Measured data and control commands must be transferred within a limited period; otherwise, introducing delays to these signals makes the system unable to trace its operating conditions and causes an undesired response [3,25].…”

“…A networked control system (NCS) is a type of control system in which the control and feedback data packets are exchanged through communication channels between agents and the controller. NCS systems are used to enhance the efficiency and reliability of the control systems [1][2][3][4]. The simplicity and efficiency of NCSs for constructing networks among multi-agent systems have received significant attention over the past years.…”

“…Although leveraging communication channels in an NCS can control and supervise the system more efficiently and reliably, NCSs are prone to cyber disruptions-either inherent or intentional ones, such as cyberattacks. The most known cyberattacks are denial of service (DoS), which disables access to the system information or a service [5], false data injection (FDI), which intentionally manipulates the exchange of data [6], replay attack, which maliciously repeats valid data transmissions [7], and a newly found attack, the time-delay switch (TDS) [3]. The number and intensity of these cyber manipulations have grown in recent years.…”

“…NCSs transmit the sensor measurements from agents to a centralized control unit through communication channels, and injecting TDS attacks will result in instability in NCSs. Therefore, it is crucial to design a secure NCS that is robust to both natural delays and TDS attacks [3,15].…”