Technologies are generally described to implement intrusion detection based on smart power background. In some examples, upon detection of an attempt to access a resource, a power line ambiance may be determined at a location of a device on which the attempt to access the resource is executed. The power line ambiance may be based on a connection of the device and/or one or more other devices at the location to a power line. The captured/received power profiles may identify device signatures enabling generation of a digest of the location. An intrusion detection system (IDS), may receive the digest of the location and compare the digest to previous digests associated with an authorized client of the resource to evaluate an authenticity of the attempt. If the authenticity of the attempt is suspicious, the IDS may elevate security by employing one or more verification levels and/or one or more authentication techniques.