ENHANCING CYBERSECURITY OF SMART CITY WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS USING BLOCKCHAIN AND PBFT CONSENSUS MECHANISM

This paper investigates cybersecurity attack models and defense strategies for water distribution systems (WDS) in smart city environments. As water infrastructure becomes increasingly digitized, it faces sophisticated cyber threats that could compromise system integrity and operational reliability. This study presents a systematic analysis of two prevalent attack vectors Denial of Service (DoS) and Man in the Middle (MITM) attacks and evaluates blockchain based defense mechanisms against these threats. Through experimental simulation using the C-town WDS model with 953 timestamp data points, we assess the vulnerability of water systems and the effectiveness of six consensus mechanisms: Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Trust (PoT), Proof of Authority (PoA), Proof of Vote (PoV), Proof of Authentication (PoAuth), and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT). The research quantifies attack impacts and demonstrates the superior resilience of PBFT, which achieved an 82.5% defense rate against DoS attacks and an 82.7% defense rate against MITM attacks, significantly outperforming alternative approaches. Furthermore, PBFT exhibited exceptional recovery capabilities with 71.1% recovery after DoS attacks and 89.3% recovery following MITM attacks. These findings provide valuable insights for implementing robust security frameworks that can maintain water system integrity even under sophisticated attack conditions.