Performance of A Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Controlled by An Illegitimate User

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate how an illegitimate user can use a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to maximally degrade the secrecy performance of the legitimate system. We first consider the case when the illegitimate user performs eavesdropping only. A problem is formulated to minimize the system secrecy rate by optimizing the phase shifts of the RIS elements. We also consider the case when the illegitimate user works with full-duplex technology and can perform eavesdropping and jamming simultaneously through the RIS. A problem is formulated to minimize the system secrecy rate by optimizing the jamming power and the phase shifts of the RIS elements. Although the two formulated problems are nonconvex, they are optimally solved in this paper. Our results show that good eavesdropping performance can be achieved by placing the RIS at an appropriate position. Further, jamming plus eavesdropping can largely reduce the secrecy rate of the legitimate system.