High-Fidelity Cyber and Physical Simulation of Water Distribution Systems. II: Enabling Cyber-Physical Attack Localization
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149, Issue 5
Abstract
A fundamental problem in the realm of cyber-physical security of smart water networks is attack detection, a key step towards designing adequate countermeasures. This task is typically carried out by algorithms that analyze time series of process data. However, the nature of the data available to develop these algorithms limits their capabilities: by relying on process data only, one cannot distinguish a cyber-attack from the failure of a system’s component or identify the root cause of an attack. Here, we show that these limitations can be addressed through the joint analysis of process and network data—with the latter representing the information exchanged between the components constituting the Industrial Control System, such as sensors and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). For this purpose, we utilize a dataset generated by digital hydraulic simulator (DHALSIM)—a numerical modelling platform built on a two-way interaction between EPANET version 2.2 and a network emulation tool—which is extended here to include a framework for launching cyber-physical attacks. This paper presents a dataset with realistic network information of a smart water network under cyber-physical attacks and presents an analysis of how that information can enable the development of better intrusion detection systems that can localize and identify attacks. Through this analysis, the dataset provided here, and the open-source availability of DHALSIM, our work paves the way to a novel class of analytics for actionable detection.
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Data Availability Statement
DHALSIM is available at https://github.com/afmurillo/DHALSIM. Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository or online in accordance with founder data retention policies. The dataset is available at https://zenodo.org/record/6323248.
Acknowledgments
This research is supported by Singapore’s National Satellite Of Excellence, Design Science and Technology for Secure Critical Infrastructure (NSoE DeST-SCI) through the project “LEarning from Network and Process data to secure Water Distribution Systems (LENP-WDS)” (Award No. NSoE_DeST-SCI2019-0003) and by the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences of Delft University of Technology.
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Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149 • Issue 5 • May 2023
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 16, 2022
Accepted: Dec 3, 2022
Published online: Feb 22, 2023
Published in print: May 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jul 22, 2023
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Cited by
- Andrés Murillo, Riccardo Taormina, Nils Ole Tippenhauer, Davide Salaorni, Robert van Dijk, Luc Jonker, Simcha Vos, Maarten Weyns, Stefano Galelli, High-Fidelity Cyber and Physical Simulation of Water Distribution Systems. I: Models and Data, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 10.1061/JWRMD5.WRENG-5853, 149, 5, (2023).