Tuning out of phase: Resonance attacks

This work presents a new class of cyber-physical switching attacks of power transmission systems. The proposed resonance attack relies on enhancing inter-area oscillation modes to drive groups of system generators out of step. This switching attack targets inter-area oscillations by switching a relatively small part of the system load at a (low) frequency that resonates with one of the inter-area oscillation modes observed in the power system. The targeted frequency of the attack is chosen through measurement-based analysis of the frequency deviation at a targeted bus that is observable by the adversary. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed switching attack when applied to a two-area system.