# Adversarial Purification for Data-Driven Power System Event Classifiers with Diffusion Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.07110 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.07110/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 25 of its 58 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Nov 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 25 of 25)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Explaining and Harnessing Adversarial Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6572/) (2014)
- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [Towards Deep Learning Models Resistant to Adversarial Attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.06083/) (2017)
- [Towards Evaluating the Robustness of Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.04644/) (2016)
- [Adversarial examples in the physical world](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.02533/) (2016)
- [Theoretically Principled Trade-off between Robustness and Accuracy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08573/) (2019)
- [Reliable evaluation of adversarial robustness with an ensemble of diverse parameter-free attacks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.01690/) (2020)
- [DeepFool: a simple and accurate method to fool deep neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.04599/) (2015)
- [Maximum Likelihood Training of Score-Based Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.09258/) (2021)
- [Feature Squeezing: Detecting Adversarial Examples in Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.01155/) (2017)
- [Diffusion Models for Adversarial Purification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.07460/) (2022)
- [Defense-GAN: Protecting Classifiers Against Adversarial Attacks Using Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.06605/) (2018)
- [PuVAE: A Variational Autoencoder to Purify Adversarial Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.00585/) (2019)
- [Is Machine Learning in Power Systems Vulnerable?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.08197/) (2018)
- [DiffCharge: Generating EV Charging Scenarios via a Denoising Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09857/) (2023)
- [Power System Event Identification based on Deep Neural Network with Information Loading](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.06718/) (2020)
- [Learning-Based Real-Time Event Identification Using Rich Real PMU Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10121/) (2020)
- [Roles of Dynamic State Estimation in Power System Modeling, Monitoring and Operation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.05380/) (2020)
- [Robust Event Classification Using Imperfect Real-world PMU Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.10128/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [A Survey on Diffusion Models for Time Series and Spatio-Temporal Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.18886/) (2024)
- [INTARG: Informed Real-Time Adversarial Attack Generation for Time-Series Regression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.11928/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The global deployment of the phasor measurement units (PMUs) enables real-time monitoring of the power system, which has stimulated considerable research into machine learning-based models for event detection and classification. However, recent studies reveal that machine learning-based methods are vulnerable to adversarial attacks, which can fool the event classifiers by adding small perturbations to the raw PMU data. To mitigate the threats posed by adversarial attacks, research on defense strategies is urgently needed. This paper proposes an effective adversarial purification method based on the diffusion model to counter adversarial attacks on the machine learning-based power system event classifier. The proposed method includes two steps: injecting noise into the PMU data; and utilizing a pre-trained neural network to eliminate the added noise while simultaneously removing perturbations introduced by the adversarial attacks. The proposed adversarial purification method significantly increases the accuracy of the event classifier under adversarial attacks while satisfying the requirements of real-time operations. In addition, the theoretical analysis reveals that the proposed diffusion model-based adversarial purification method decreases the distance between the original and compromised PMU data, which reduces the impacts of adversarial attacks. The empirical results on a large-scale real-world PMU dataset validate the effectiveness and computational efficiency of the proposed adversarial purification method.