Privacy and Security in Network Controlled Systems via Dynamic Masking

In this paper, we propose a new architecture to enhance the privacy and security of networked control systems against malicious adversaries. We consider an adversary which first learns the system using system identification techniques (privacy), and then performs a data injection attack (security). In particular, we consider an adversary conducting zero-dynamics attacks (ZDA) which maximizes the performance cost of the system whilst staying undetected. Using the proposed architecture, we show that it is possible to (i) introduce significant bias in the system estimates obtained by the adversary: thus providing privacy, and (ii) efficiently detect attacks when the adversary performs a ZDA using the identified system: thus providing security. Through numerical simulations, we illustrate the efficacy of the proposed architecture. Copyright (c) 2023 The Authors.