False sequential logic attack on SCADA system and its physical impact analysis

A cyber-physical attack in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems can cause the disruption of physical process, and may result in economic loss, equipment damage or even casualties. Due to the increase of security risk in SCADA systems, a major research challenge is to identify the potential threats and analyze their possible influence and consequence. This paper presents a new class of cyber-physical attacks named false sequential logic attack, and proposes an approach for modeling the attack. In addition, simulations are performed in the MATLAB/SIMULINK, and the physical effects of attacks are analyzed in details, which are useful for understanding how the false sequential logic attack can affect the physical system.