Load Altering Attacks- a Review of Impact and Mitigation Strategies

Abstract

Power Systems are the backbone of the economic activities and security of modern-day society. Simultaneously the size and complexity of the systems go on increasing at a rapid pace as the requirement for continuous and reliable power supply increases. With the ongoing modernization leading from the large-scale integration of operation and information technologies (OT and IT), power systems are becoming smarter and simultaneously prone to cyberattacks and their frequency of occurrence is on the rise. Malicious cyberattacks on the power system impose huge societal risks. Timely mitigation of these attacks thus becoming a necessity for reliably operating the power system. Load Altering Attacks (LAAs) are an important category of cyberattacks in power systems that tend to increase load abruptly with the motive of damaging the system and causing various losses to the whole society. This work gives a thorough review of load altering attacks, the various types, that can be launched against a power system, and then their mitigation techniques presented in various works of literature.