A Survey on Wireless Sensor Network Security

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently attracted a lot of interest in the research community due their wide range of applications. Due to distributed nature of these networks and their deployment in remote areas, these networks are vulnerable to numerous security threats that can adversely affect their proper functioning. This problem is more critical if the network is deployed for some mission-critical applications such as in a tactical battlefield. Random failure of nodes is also very likely in real-life deployment scenarios. Due to resource constraints in the sensor nodes, traditional security mechanisms with large overhead of computation and communication are infeasible in WSNs. Security in sensor networks is, therefore, a particularly challenging task. This paper discusses the current state of the art in security mechanisms for WSNs. Various types of attacks are discussed and their countermeasures presented. A brief discussion on the future direction of research in WSN security is also included.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Intrusion Detection Systems for Community Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks are being increasingly used to provide affordable network connectivity to communities where wired deployment strategies are either not possible or are prohibitively expensive. Unfortunately, computer networks (including mesh networks) are frequently being exploited by increasingly profit-driven and insidious attackers, which can affect their utility for legitimate use. In response to this, a number of countermeasures have been developed, including intrusion detection systems that aim to detect anomalous behaviour caused by attacks. We present a set of socio-technical challenges associated with developing an intrusion detection system for a community wireless mesh network. The attack space on a mesh network is particularly large; we motivate the need for and describe the challenges of adopting an asset-driven approach to managing this space. Finally, we present an initial design of a modular architecture for intrusion detection, highlighting how it addresses the identified challenges

Intrusion Detection Systems for Community Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks are being increasingly used to provide affordable network connectivity to communities where wired deployment strategies are either not possible or are prohibitively expensive. Unfortunately, computer networks (including mesh networks) are frequently being exploited by increasingly profit-driven and insidious attackers, which can affect their utility for legitimate use. In response to this, a number of countermeasures have been developed, including intrusion detection systems that aim to detect anomalous behaviour caused by attacks. We present a set of socio-technical challenges associated with developing an intrusion detection system for a community wireless mesh network. The attack space on a mesh network is particularly large; we motivate the need for and describe the challenges of adopting an asset-driven approach to managing this space. Finally, we present an initial design of a modular architecture for intrusion detection, highlighting how it addresses the identified challenges

Hierarchical Design Based Intrusion Detection System For Wireless Ad hoc Network

In recent years, wireless ad hoc sensor network becomes popular both in civil and military jobs. However, security is one of the significant challenges for sensor network because of their deployment in open and unprotected environment. As cryptographic mechanism is not enough to protect sensor network from external attacks, intrusion detection system needs to be introduced. Though intrusion prevention mechanism is one of the major and efficient methods against attacks, but there might be some attacks for which prevention method is not known. Besides preventing the system from some known attacks, intrusion detection system gather necessary information related to attack technique and help in the development of intrusion prevention system. In addition to reviewing the present attacks available in wireless sensor network this paper examines the current efforts to intrusion detection system against wireless sensor network. In this paper we propose a hierarchical architectural design based intrusion detection system that fits the current demands and restrictions of wireless ad hoc sensor network. In this proposed intrusion detection system architecture we followed clustering mechanism to build a four level hierarchical network which enhances network scalability to large geographical area and use both anomaly and misuse detection techniques for intrusion detection. We introduce policy based detection mechanism as well as intrusion response together with GSM cell concept for intrusion detection architecture.Comment: 16 pages, International Journal of Network Security & Its Applications (IJNSA), Vol.2, No.3, July 2010. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1111.1933 by other author

A Security Supervision System for Hybrid Networks

The traditional way of protecting networks and applications with e.g., firewalls and encryption, is no longer sufficient to protect effectively emerging hybrid wired-cum-wireless networks including ad hoc networks. Intrusion detection mechanisms should be coupled with preventive measures so as to identify unauthorised abuses. To this end, we propose a novel Hybrid Distributed Security Operation Center (HDSOC) which collects logs that are generated by any application/service, layer of the protocol stack or resource (e.g., router), providing a global view of the supervised system based on which complex and distributed intrusions can be detected. Our HDSOC further (i) distributes its capabilities and (ii) provides extensive coordination capabilities for guarantying that both the networks and the HDSOC components do not constitute isolated entities largely unaware of each others

AMISEC: Leveraging Redundancy and Adaptability to Secure AmI Applications

Security in Ambient Intelligence (AmI) poses too many challenges due to the inherently insecure nature of wireless sensor nodes. However, there are two characteristics of these environments that can be used effectively to prevent, detect, and confine attacks: redundancy and continuous adaptation. In this article we propose a global strategy and a system architecture to cope with security issues in AmI applications at different levels. Unlike in previous approaches, we assume an individual wireless node is vulnerable. We present an agent-based architecture with supporting services that is proven to be adequate to detect and confine common attacks. Decisions at different levels are supported by a trust-based framework with good and bad reputation feedback while maintaining resistance to bad-mouthing attacks. We also propose a set of services that can be used to handle identification, authentication, and authorization in intelligent ambients. The resulting approach takes into account practical issues, such as resource limitation, bandwidth optimization, and scalability