With many countries trying to establish their own smart grids, smart meters are massively deployed throughout the world. Although smart meters are manufactured with low tamper-resistant components, malicious users with just a moderate level of computer knowledge are able to launch cyber attacks. By manipulating electricity consumption readings to smaller values, malicious users can steal electricity from utility companies. To reduce the losses incurred by electricity theft, utility companies must provide preventative and detective methods to identify fraudulent behaviors. Our goal is to identify all malicious users in a neighborhood area network within the shortest detection time. To achieve this goal, we propose Group Testing based Heuristic Inspection (GTHI) algorithm, which can estimate the ratio of malicious users on-line, mainly by collecting the information that how many malicious users have been identified during the inspection process. Based upon the ratio of malicious users, the GTHI algorithm adaptively adjusts inspection strategies between an individual inspection strategy and a group testing strategy. This helps shorten the detection time. Furthermore, when applying the group testing strategy, the GTHI algorithm also determines the group size of users to be probed in line with the estimated malicious user ratio. Experiment results show that compared to existing methods, the GTHI algorithm has advantages of conducting fewer inspection steps or being more practical.

中文翻译：

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GTHI：一种在智能电网中检测恶意用户的启发式算法

随着许多国家试图建立自己的智能电网，智能电表在全球范围内大规模部署。尽管智能电表采用低防篡改组件制造，但具有中等计算机知识水平的恶意用户能够发起网络攻击。通过将耗电量读数控制为较小的值，恶意用户可以从公用事业公司窃取电力。为了减少电力盗窃造成的损失，公用事业公司必须提供预防和检测方法来识别欺诈行为。我们的目标是在最短的检测时间内识别邻域网络中的所有恶意用户。为了实现这一目标，我们提出了基于启发式检查（GTHI）的组测试算法，该算法可以估计恶意用户在线的比例，主要是通过收集检测过程中识别出多少恶意用户的信息。GTHI算法根据恶意用户的比例，自适应调整个体检测策略和群体检测策略之间的检测策略。这有助于缩短检测时间。此外，在应用组测试策略时，GTHI算法还根据估计的恶意用户比例确定要探测的用户的组大小。实验结果表明，与现有方法相比，GTHI算法具有检查步骤少或更实用的优点。GTHI 算法在单个检查策略和组测试策略之间自适应调整检查策略。这有助于缩短检测时间。此外，在应用组测试策略时，GTHI算法还根据估计的恶意用户比例确定要探测的用户的组大小。实验结果表明，与现有方法相比，GTHI算法具有检查步骤少或更实用的优点。GTHI 算法在单个检查策略和组测试策略之间自适应调整检查策略。这有助于缩短检测时间。此外，在应用组测试策略时，GTHI算法还根据估计的恶意用户比例确定要探测的用户的组大小。实验结果表明，与现有方法相比，GTHI算法具有检查步骤少或更实用的优点。