{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,14]],"date-time":"2025-10-14T00:50:54Z","timestamp":1760403054771,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":13,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,2]],"date-time":"2021-04-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1617321600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cryptography"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The progression of cyber-attacks on the cyber-physical system is analyzed by the Probabilistic, Learning Attacker, and Dynamic Defender (PLADD) model. Although our research does apply to all cyber-physical systems, we focus on power grid infrastructure. The PLADD model evaluates the effectiveness of moving target defense (MTD) techniques. We consider the power grid attack scenarios in the AND configurations and OR configurations. In addition, we consider, for the first time ever, power grid attack scenarios involving both AND configurations and OR configurations simultaneously. Cyber-security managers can use the strategy introduced in this manuscript to optimize their defense strategies. Specifically, our research provides insight into when to reset access controls (such as passwords, internet protocol addresses, and session keys), to minimize the probability of a successful attack. Our mathematical proof for the OR configuration of multiple PLADD games shows that it is best if all access controls are reset simultaneously. For the AND configuration, our mathematical proof shows that it is best (in terms of minimizing the attacker\u2032s average probability of success) that the resets are equally spaced apart. We introduce a novel concept called hierarchical parallel PLADD system to cover additional attack scenarios that require combinations of AND and OR configurations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cryptography5020012","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,2]],"date-time":"2021-04-02T10:34:09Z","timestamp":1617359649000},"page":"12","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Grid Cyber-Security Strategy in an Attacker-Defender Model"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Yu-Cheng","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"suffix":"III","given":"Vincent John","family":"Mooney","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA"},{"name":"School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Santiago","family":"Grijalva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, Y., Mooney, V., and Grijalva, S. (2020, January 10\u201313). Grid Cyber-Security Strategy in an Attacker-Defender Model. Proceedings of the 2020 Clemson University Power Systems Conference (PSC), Clemson, SC, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/PSC50246.2020.9131230"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"(2020, December 26). Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure, Available online: https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/sites\/prod\/files\/2018\/05\/f51\/EO13800%20electricity%20subsector%20report.pdf."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Lee, R.M., Assante, M.J., and Conway, T. (2020, December 26). Analysis of the Cyber Attack on the Ukrainian Power Grid. Available online: https:\/\/ics.sans.org\/media\/E-ISAC_SANS_Ukraine_DUC_5.pdf."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Styczynski, J. (2020, December 26). When the Lights Went Out. Available online: https:\/\/www.boozallen.com\/content\/dam\/boozallen\/documents\/2016\/09\/ukraine-report-when-the-lights-went-out.pdf."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chukwuka, V., Chen, Y., Grijalva, S., and Mooney, V. (2018, January 4\u20137). Bad Data Injection Attack Propagation in Cyber-Physical Power Delivery Systems. Proceedings of the 2018 Clemson University Power Systems Conference (PSC), Charleston, SC, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/PSC.2018.8664024"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"379","DOI":"10.1561\/2600000003","article-title":"Game Theory: Models, Numerical Methods and Applications","volume":"1","author":"Dario","year":"2014","journal-title":"Found. Trends\u00ae Syst. Control"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Deisenroth, M.P., Faisal, A.A., and Ong, C.S. (2020, December 28). Mathematics for Machine Learning: Cambridge University Press. Available online: https:\/\/mml-book.github.io\/book\/mml-book.pdf.","DOI":"10.1017\/9781108679930"},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"(2019, November 15). John the Ripper Password Cracker. Openwall. Available online: https:\/\/www.openwall.com\/john\/."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ulrich, J., Drahos, J., and Govindarasu, M. (2017, January 18\u201322). A symmetric address translation approach for a network layer moving target defense to secure power grid networks. Proceedings of the 2017 Resilience Week (RWS), Wilmington, DE, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/RWEEK.2017.8088667"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Evtyushkin, D., Ponomarev, D., and Abu-Ghazaleh, N. (2016, January 15\u201319). Jump over ASLR: Attacking branch predictors to bypass ASLR. Proceedings of the 2016 49th Annual IEEE\/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO), Taipei, Taiwan.","DOI":"10.1109\/MICRO.2016.7783743"},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"(2019, November 15). Hashcat-Advanced Password Recovery. Hashcat. Available online: https:\/\/hashcat.net\/hashcat\/."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bo\u0161njak, L., Sre\u0161, J., and Brumen, B. (2018, January 21\u201325). Brute-force and dictionary attack on hashed real-world passwords. Proceedings of the 2018 41st International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO), Opatija, Croatia.","DOI":"10.23919\/MIPRO.2018.8400211"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jones, S., Outkin, A., Gearhart, J., Hobbs, J., Siirola, J., Phillips, C., Verzi, S., Tauritz, D., Mulder, S., and Naugle, A. (2020, December 29). Evaluating Moving Target Defense with PLADD, Available online: https:\/\/prod-ng.sandia.gov\/techlib-noauth\/access-control.cgi\/2015\/158432r.pdf.","DOI":"10.2172\/1222986"}],"container-title":["Cryptography"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2410-387X\/5\/2\/12\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,13]],"date-time":"2025-10-13T14:11:01Z","timestamp":1760364661000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2410-387X\/5\/2\/12"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,2]]},"references-count":13,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6]]}},"alternative-id":["cryptography5020012"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/cryptography5020012","relation":{},"ISSN":["2410-387X"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2410-387X"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,2]]}}}