A Cryptographic-Based Approach For Electricity Theft Detection in Smart Grid

Abstract

In order to strengthen their security issues, electrical companies devote particular efforts to developing and enhancing their fraud detection techniques that cope with the information and communication technologies integration in smart grid fields. Having been treated earlier by several researchers, various detection schemes adapted from attack models that benefit from the smart grid topologies weaknesses, aiming primarily to the identification of suspicious incoming hazards. Wireless meshes have been extensively used in smart grid communication architectures due to their facility, lightness of conception and low cost installation; however, the communicated packets are still exposed to be intercepted maliciously in order either to falsify pertinent information like the smart meter readings, or to inject false data instead, aiming at electricity theft during the communication phase. For this reason, this paper initiates a novel method based on RSA cryptographic algorithm to detect electricity fraud in smart grid. This new method consists of generating two different cryptograms of one electricity measurement before sending, after which the recipient is used to find the same value after decrypting the two cyphers in a normal case. Otherwise, a fraudulent manipulation could occur during the transmission stage. The presented method allows us to kill two birds with one stone. First, satisfactory outcomes are shown: the algorithm accuracy reaches 100%, from one hand, and the privacy is protected thanks to the cryptology concept on the other hand.