Co-Simulation of FDI and DOS Attacks in IoT-Enabled Next-Generation Smart Grids: A Framework for Resilience

Conventional, isolated security models fail to protect IoT-integrated Smart Grids from combined cyber-physical threats. Using a co-simulation testbed, this research proves that cyberattacks directly cause physical damage. In this paper, the need for holistic analysis with the help of a high-fidelity cosimulation testbed (NS-3, GridLAB-D, HELICS) is proved. We demonstrate that cyberattacks have a direct impact on causing critical physical failure; an example is a false data injection attack that leads to the severity of voltage and line loading violations. More importantly, we demonstrate a synergistic compound effect: a Denial-of-Service attack, which paralyzes situational awareness of more than 45 percent packet loss, proactively blocks the detection of the FDI-induced violations. This covering effect dramatically enhances the threat of domino failures- an amplifier of risks to which the current siloed models are incapable of capturing. Our effort offers an established avenue on which effective countermeasures to these joint threats can be built.