arXiv subjects

Emad Efatinasab

Publications and source records attributed to Emad Efatinasab.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

ProDER: A Continual Learning Approach for Fault Prediction in Evolving Smart Grids

As smart grids evolve to meet growing energy demands and modern operational challenges, the ability to accurately predict faults becomes increasingly critical. However, existing AI-based fault prediction models struggle to ensure reliability in evolving environments where they are required to adapt to new fault types and operational zones. In this paper, we propose a continual learning (CL) framework in the smart grid context to evolve the model together with the environment. We design four realistic evaluation scenarios grounded in class-incremental and domain-incremental learning to emulate evolving grid conditions. We further introduce Prototype-based Dark Experience Replay (ProDER), a unified replay-based approach that integrates prototype-based feature regularization, logit distillation, and a prototype-guided replay memory. ProDER achieves the best performance among the tested CL techniques, with accuracy drops of up to 0.032 for fault type prediction and up to 0.033 for fault zone prediction across different scenarios. These results demonstrate the practicality of resource-efficient continual learning system that reduces the computational and storage burden of maintaining intelligent fault prediction services in evolving energy infrastructure.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

Towards Robust Stability Prediction in Smart Grids: GAN-based Approach under Data Constraints and Adversarial Challenges

Smart grids are crucial for meeting rising energy demands driven by global population growth and urbanization. By integrating renewable energy sources, they enhance efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. However, ensuring their availability and security requires advanced operational control and safety measures. Although artificial intelligence and machine learning can help assess grid stability, challenges such as data scarcity and cybersecurity threats, particularly adversarial attacks, remain. Data scarcity is a major issue, as obtaining real-world instances of grid instability requires significant expertise, resources, and time. Yet, these instances are critical for testing new research advancements and security mitigations. This paper introduces a novel framework for detecting instability in smart grids using only stable data. It employs a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) where the generator is designed not to produce near-realistic data but instead to generate Out-Of-Distribution (OOD) samples with respect to the stable class. These OOD samples represent unstable behavior, anomalies, or disturbances that deviate from the stable data distribution. By training exclusively on stable data and exposing the discriminator to OOD samples, our framework learns a robust decision boundary to distinguish stable conditions from any unstable behavior, without requiring unstable data during training. Furthermore, we incorporate an adversarial training layer to enhance resilience against attacks. Evaluated on a real-world dataset, our solution achieves up to 98.1\% accuracy in predicting grid stability and 98.9\% in detecting adversarial attacks. Implemented on a single-board computer, it enables real-time decision-making with an average response time of under 7ms.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2024

Continual Learning for Behavior-based Driver Identification

Behavior-based Driver Identification is an emerging technology that recognizes drivers based on their unique driving behaviors, offering important applications such as vehicle theft prevention and personalized driving experiences. However, most studies fail to account for the real-world challenges of deploying Deep Learning models within vehicles. These challenges include operating under limited computational resources, adapting to new drivers, and changes in driving behavior over time. The objective of this study is to evaluate if Continual Learning (CL) is well-suited to address these challenges, as it enables models to retain previously learned knowledge while continually adapting with minimal computational overhead and resource requirements. We tested several CL techniques across three scenarios of increasing complexity based on the well-known OCSLab dataset. This work provides an important step forward in scalable driver identification solutions, demonstrating that CL approaches, such as DER, can obtain strong performance, with only an 11% reduction in accuracy compared to the static scenario. Furthermore, to enhance the performance, we propose two new methods, SmooER and SmooDER, that leverage the temporal continuity of driver identity over time to enhance classification accuracy. Our novel method, SmooDER, achieves optimal results with only a 2% reduction compared to the 11\% of the DER approach. In conclusion, this study proves the feasibility of CL approaches to address the challenges of Driver Identification in dynamic environments, making them suitable for deployment on cloud infrastructure or directly within vehicles.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

When Authentication Is Not Enough: On the Security of Behavioral-Based Driver Authentication Systems

Many research papers have recently focused on behavioral-based driver authentication systems in vehicles. Pushed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancements, these works propose powerful models to identify drivers through their unique biometric behavior. However, these models have never been scrutinized from a security point of view, rather focusing on the performance of the AI algorithms. Several limitations and oversights make implementing the state-of-the-art impractical, such as their secure connection to the vehicle's network and the management of security alerts. Furthermore, due to the extensive use of AI, these systems may be vulnerable to adversarial attacks. However, there is currently no discussion on the feasibility and impact of such attacks in this scenario. Driven by the significant gap between research and practical application, this paper seeks to connect these two domains. We propose the first security-aware system model for behavioral-based driver authentication. We develop two lightweight driver authentication systems based on Random Forest and Recurrent Neural Network architectures designed for our constrained environments. We formalize a realistic system and threat model reflecting a real-world vehicle's network for their implementation. When evaluated on real driving data, our models outclass the state-of-the-art with an accuracy of up to 0.999 in identification and authentication. Moreover, we are the first to propose attacks against these systems by developing two novel evasion attacks, SMARTCAN and GANCAN. We show how attackers can still exploit these systems with a perfect attack success rate (up to 1.000). Finally, we discuss requirements for deploying driver authentication systems securely. Through our contributions, we aid practitioners in safely adopting these systems, help reduce car thefts, and enhance driver security.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2024

GAN-GRID: A Novel Generative Attack on Smart Grid Stability Prediction

The smart grid represents a pivotal innovation in modernizing the electricity sector, offering an intelligent, digitalized energy network capable of optimizing energy delivery from source to consumer. It hence represents the backbone of the energy sector of a nation. Due to its central role, the availability of the smart grid is paramount and is hence necessary to have in-depth control of its operations and safety. To this aim, researchers developed multiple solutions to assess the smart grid's stability and guarantee that it operates in a safe state. Artificial intelligence and Machine learning algorithms have proven to be effective measures to accurately predict the smart grid's stability. Despite the presence of known adversarial attacks and potential solutions, currently, there exists no standardized measure to protect smart grids against this threat, leaving them open to new adversarial attacks. In this paper, we propose GAN-GRID a novel adversarial attack targeting the stability prediction system of a smart grid tailored to real-world constraints. Our findings reveal that an adversary armed solely with the stability model's output, devoid of data or model knowledge, can craft data classified as stable with an Attack Success Rate (ASR) of 0.99. Also by manipulating authentic data and sensor values, the attacker can amplify grid issues, potentially undetected due to a compromised stability prediction system. These results underscore the imperative of fortifying smart grid security mechanisms against adversarial manipulation to uphold system stability and reliability.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2024

FaultGuard: A Generative Approach to Resilient Fault Prediction in Smart Electrical Grids

Predicting and classifying faults in electricity networks is crucial for uninterrupted provision and keeping maintenance costs at a minimum. Thanks to the advancements in the field provided by the smart grid, several data-driven approaches have been proposed in the literature to tackle fault prediction tasks. Implementing these systems brought several improvements, such as optimal energy consumption and quick restoration. Thus, they have become an essential component of the smart grid. However, the robustness and security of these systems against adversarial attacks have not yet been extensively investigated. These attacks can impair the whole grid and cause additional damage to the infrastructure, deceiving fault detection systems and disrupting restoration. In this paper, we present FaultGuard, the first framework for fault type and zone classification resilient to adversarial attacks. To ensure the security of our system, we employ an Anomaly Detection System (ADS) leveraging a novel Generative Adversarial Network training layer to identify attacks. Furthermore, we propose a low-complexity fault prediction model and an online adversarial training technique to enhance robustness. We comprehensively evaluate the framework's performance against various adversarial attacks using the IEEE13-AdvAttack dataset, which constitutes the state-of-the-art for resilient fault prediction benchmarking. Our model outclasses the state-of-the-art even without considering adversaries, with an accuracy of up to 0.958. Furthermore, our ADS shows attack detection capabilities with an accuracy of up to 1.000. Finally, we demonstrate how our novel training layers drastically increase performances across the whole framework, with a mean increase of 154% in ADS accuracy and 118% in model accuracy.

cs.CR↗