Many operations in power grids, such as fault detection and event location
estimation, depend on precise timing information. In this paper, a novel time
stamp attack (TSA) is proposed to attack the timing information in smart grid.
Since many applications in smart grid utilize synchronous measurements and most
of the measurement devices are equipped with global positioning system (GPS)
for precise timing, it is highly probable to attack the measurement system by
spoofing the GPS.
A bandwidth puzzle was recently proposed to defend against colluding
adversaries in peer-to-peer networks. The colluding adversaries do not do
actual work but claim to have uploaded contents for each other to gain free
credits from the system. The bandwidth puzzle guarantees that if the
adversaries can solve the puzzle, they must have spent substantial bandwidth,
the size of which is comparable to the size of the contents they claim to have
uploaded for each other. Therefore, the puzzle discourages the collusion.