Anomaly detection in cyber-physical systems: A formal methods approach

As the complexity of cyber-physical systems increases, so does the number of ways an adversary can disrupt them. This necessitates automated anomaly detection methods to detect possible threats. In this paper, we extend our recent results in the field of inference via formal methods to develop an unsupervised learning algorithm. Our procedure constructs from data a signal temporal logic (STL) formula that describes normal system behavior. Trajectories that do not satisfy the learned formula are flagged as anomalous. STL can be used to formulate properties such as “If the train brakes within 500 m of the platform at a speed of 50 km/hr, then it will stop in at least 30 s and at most 50 s.” STL gives a more human-readable representation of behavior than classifiers represented as surfaces in high-dimensional feature spaces. STL formulae can also be used for early detection via online monitoring and for anomaly mitigation via formal synthesis. We demonstrate the power of our method with a physical model of a train´s brake system. To our knowledge, this paper is the first instance of formal methods being applied to anomaly detection.