Abstract

Critical infrastructures, such as power grids and transportation systems, are increasingly using open networks for operation. The use of open networks poses many challenges for control systems. The classical design of control systems takes into account modeling uncertainties as well as physical disturbances, providing a multitude of control design methods such as robust control, adaptive control, and stochastic control. With the growing level of integration of control systems with new information technologies, modern control systems face uncertainties not only from the physical world but also from the cybercomponents of the system. The vulnerabilities of the software deployed in the new control system infrastructure will expose the control system to many potential risks and threats from attackers. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities can lead to severe damage as has been reported in various news outlets [1], [2]. More recently, it has been reported in [3] and [4] that a computer worm, Stuxnet, was spread to target Siemens supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems that are configured to control and monitor specific industrial processes.