Distributed detection of covert attacks for linear
large-scale interconnected systems is addressed in this
article. Existing results consider the problem in centralized
settings. This article focuses on large-scale systems subject
to bounded process and measurement disturbances,
where a single subsystem is under a covert attack. A detection
methodology is proposed, where each subsystem
can detect the presence of covert attacks in neighboring
subsystems in a distributed manner. The detection strategy
is based on the design of two model-based observers for
each subsystem using only local information. An extensive
detectability analysis is provided and simulation results on
a power network benchmark are given, showing the effectiveness
of the proposed methodology for the detection of
covert cyber-attacks.
