Impact assessment of cyber attacks: A quantification study on power generation systems

Abstract

Vulnerability of critical infrastructures have increased with widespread use of information technologies. Although individual hackers whose major aims are self-satisfaction and financial gain are already on the stage, nation sponsored attacks are considered as important threats after Stuxnet attack. An important intention of targeted attacks by nation states may be the degradation of cyber physical systems of their enemies. After these developments, cyber-attacks have become an agenda item of the academics, practitioners and policy makers. In this study, we employed Monte-Carlo reliability analysis technique to quantify the impact of cyber-attacks on industrial control systems used in power generation systems. Economic value of cyber-attacks can help decision makers to decide if a cyber-security investment is feasible or not. The results showed that cyber-attacks may have significant impact on reliability of power generation systems.