Demonstration of MITM Attack in Synchrophasor Network Using MAC Spoofing

Communication is critical for power system operation and control. Data transfer via digital means is vulnerable to security and privacy concerns. Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks pose a risk to the data integrity of synchrophasor values transferred as digital data within the smart grid. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate how utilizing Media Access Control (MAC) spoofing instead of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing can improve the stealth and robustness of MITM attacks in synchrophasor networks and to provide a thorough understanding of the weaknesses and possible risks present in synchrophasor networks when they are the target of MITM attacks, highlighting network elements and targets. After a session hijack, when bogus data was eventually injected, it was evaluated and processed by the phasor data concentrator (PDC), ensuring consistent networking and the attacker's non-detectability. For generic experiment results, different sub-networks based on the master–slave topology of synchrophasor networking and commercially available phasor measurement unit (PMU) and PDC were used in a laboratory-scale setup.