Hybrid Temporal Differential Consistency Autoencoder for Efficient and Sustainable Anomaly Detection in Cyber-Physical Systems
This addresses the need for robust intrusion detection in critical infrastructure vulnerable to cyberattacks, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing temporal differential consistency concepts.
The paper tackles anomaly detection in cyber-physical systems like water distribution networks by proposing a hybrid autoencoder that incorporates temporal differential consistency and both deterministic and statistical nodes, achieving state-of-the-art performance with a 3% improvement in detection time.
Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, particularly water distribution systems, have increased due to rapid digitalization and the integration of IoT devices and industrial control systems (ICS). These cyber-physical systems (CPS) introduce new vulnerabilities, requiring robust and automated intrusion detection systems (IDS) to mitigate potential threats. This study addresses key challenges in anomaly detection by leveraging time correlations in sensor data, integrating physical principles into machine learning models, and optimizing computational efficiency for edge applications. We build upon the concept of temporal differential consistency (TDC) loss to capture the dynamics of the system, ensuring meaningful relationships between dynamic states. Expanding on this foundation, we propose a hybrid autoencoder-based approach, referred to as hybrid TDC-AE, which extends TDC by incorporating both deterministic nodes and conventional statistical nodes. This hybrid structure enables the model to account for non-deterministic processes. Our approach achieves state-of-the-art classification performance while improving time to detect anomalies by 3%, outperforming the BATADAL challenge leader without requiring domain-specific knowledge, making it broadly applicable. Additionally, it maintains the computational efficiency of conventional autoencoders while reducing the number of fully connected layers, resulting in a more sustainable and efficient solution. The method demonstrates how leveraging physics-inspired consistency principles enhances anomaly detection and strengthens the resilience of cyber-physical systems.