A system comprising a microcontroller located on a communication bus, a power consumption circuit configured to determine power consumption of the microcontroller, wherein a processor is programmed to determine if a clock associated with the microcontroller is paused and whether an average operational power has exceeded a power threshold, and in response to the average operational power exceeding the power threshold and in response to identifying an attacked message or attacked electronics control unit, in response to determining the microcontroller is under the suspected attack, output an alert associated with an event causing change in the bit patterns of messages on the communication bus.