Physical Attestation and Authentication to Detect Cheating in Resource Constrained Smart Micro-grids

We present a physical attestation and authentication approach to detecting cheating in resource constrained smart micro-grids. A multi-user smart micro-grid (SMG) architecture supported by a low cost and unreliable communications network, forms our application scenario. In this scenario, a malicious adversary can cheat by manipulating the measured power consumption/generation data. In doing so, the reward is access to more than the per user allocated power quota. Cheating discourages user participation and results in grid destabilisation and a breakdown of the grid in the worst case. Detecting cheating attacks is thus essential for secure and resilient SMG management, but is also a challenging problem. We address this problem with a cheating detection scheme that integrates the idea of physical attestation and authentication via on control signals to assess whether or not the SMG system is under attack. A theoretical analysis demonstrates the efficiency and correctness of our proposed scheme for constrained SMGs.