An embedded sensor node microcontroller with crypto-processors

Wireless sensor network applications range from industrial automation and control, agricultural and environmental protection, to surveillance and medicine. In most applications, data are highly sensitive and must be protected from any type of attack and abuse. Security challenges in wireless sensor networks are mainly defined by the power and computing resources of sensor devices, memory size, quality of radio channels and susceptibility to physical capture. In this article, an embedded sensor node microcontroller designed to support sensor network applications with severe security demands is presented. It features a low power 16-bitprocessor core supported by a number of hardware accelerators designed to perform complex operations required by advanced crypto algorithms. The microcontroller integrates an embedded Flash and an 8-channel 12-bit analog-to-digital converter making it a good solution for low-power sensor nodes. The article discusses the most important security topics in wireless sensor networks and presents the architecture of the proposed hardware solution. Furthermore, it gives details on the chip implementation, verification and hardware evaluation. Finally, the chip power dissipation and performance figures are estimated and analyzed

Chameleon: a Blind Double Trapdoor Hash Function for Securing AMI Data Aggregation

Data aggregation is an integral part of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) deployment that is implemented by the concentrator. Data aggregation reduces the number of transmissions, thereby reducing communication costs and increasing the bandwidth utilization of AMI. However, the concentrator poses a great risk of being tampered with, leading to erroneous bills and possible consumer disputes. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end integrity protocol using elliptic curve based chameleon hashing to provide data integrity and authenticity. The concentrator generates and sends a chameleon hash value of the aggregated readings to the Meter Data Management System (MDMS) for verification, while the smart meter with the trapdoor key computes and sends a commitment value to the MDMS so that the resulting chameleon hash value calculated by the MDMS is equivalent to the previous hash value sent by the concentrator. By comparing the two hash values, the MDMS can validate the integrity and authenticity of the data sent by the concentrator. Compared with the discrete logarithm implementation, the ECC implementation reduces the computational cost of MDMS, concentrator and smart meter by approximately 36.8%, 80%, and 99% respectively. We also demonstrate the security soundness of our protocol through informal security analysis

On Vulnerabilities of the Security Association in the IEEE 802.15.6 Standard

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) support a variety of real-time health monitoring and consumer electronics applications. The latest international standard for WBAN is the IEEE 802.15.6. The security association in this standard includes four elliptic curve-based key agreement protocols that are used for generating a master key. In this paper, we challenge the security of the IEEE 802.15.6 standard by showing vulnerabilities of those four protocols to several attacks. We perform a security analysis on the protocols, and show that they all have security problems, and are vulnerable to different attacks

Analysis and comparison of security protocols in wireless sensor networks

Abstract-Wireless sensor networks are widely used in several application domains thanks to their data acquisition and processing capabilities and their decentralized and self-organizing nature. A widely distributed monitoring system is typically characterized by different security requirements that should be addressed by means of specific security protocols and architectures. Indeed, security solutions should be properly designed as they could have a strong impact on the overall performances. In this paper, we focus our attention on security problems related to the data exchange between sensor nodes and evaluate the performances of two different cryptosystems used to guarantee confidentiality, integrity and authentication requirements

Towards the use of Pairing-Based Cryptography for Resource-Constrained Home Area Networks

Abstract-In the prevailing smart grid, the Home Area Network (HAN) will become a critical infrastructure component at the consumer premises. The HAN provides the electricity infrastructure with a bi-directional communication infrastructure that allows monitoring and control of electrical appliances. HANs are typically equipped with wireless sensors and actuators, built from resource-constrained hardware devices, that communicate by using open standard protocols. This raises concerns on the security of these networked systems. Because of this, securing a HAN to a proper degree becomes an increasingly important task. In this paper, a security model, where an adversary may exploit the system both during HAN setup as well as during operations of the network, is considered. We propose a scheme for secure bootstrapping of wireless HAN devices based on IdentityBased Cryptography (IBC). The scheme minimizes the number of exchanged messages needed to establish a session key between HAN devices. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated from a series of prototype experiments

Security in smart object networks

Internet of Things (IoT) refers to an inter-connected world where physical devices are seamlessly integrated into the Internet and become active participants of business, information and social processes. This involves the inter-connection of a large number of heterogeneous networked entities and networks. Emergence of technologies such as Zigbee, Bluetooth low energy and embedded sensors has transformed simple physical devices into smart objects that can understand and react to their environment. Such smart objects form the building blocks for the Internet of Things. The communication infrastructure for these objects is based on an extension of the Internet protocol stack. Although the need for security is widely accepted, there is no clear consensus on how IP-based Internet security protocols can be applied to resource-constrained smart object networks. In this thesis, we develop a new secure and energy efficient communication model for the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), a light-weight communication protocol designed for smart object networks. We contribute to the standardization of the generic communication architecture by adding security and delegation components for smart objects that sleep for large amounts of time during their operational phase. This architecture ensures data integrity and authenticity over a multi-hop network topology. It also provides a mirroring mechanism that uses a proxy to serve data on behalf of sleeping smart objects, thereby allowing them to act as always-online web servers. A working prototype implementation of the architecture is also developed. The security features in the architecture presented in this thesis are based on using strong public-key cryptography. Contrary to popular belief, our performance evaluation shows that asymmetric public-key cryptography can be implemented on small 8-bit micro-controllers without modifying the underlying cryptographic algorithms

REISCH: incorporating lightweight and reliable algorithms into healthcare applications of WSNs

Healthcare institutions require advanced technology to collect patients' data accurately and continuously. The tradition technologies still suffer from two problems: performance and security efficiency. The existing research has serious drawbacks when using public-key mechanisms such as digital signature algorithms. In this paper, we propose Reliable and Efficient Integrity Scheme for Data Collection in HWSN (REISCH) to alleviate these problems by using secure and lightweight signature algorithms. The results of the performance analysis indicate that our scheme provides high efficiency in data integration between sensors and server (saves more than 24% of alive sensors compared to traditional algorithms). Additionally, we use Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) to validate the security procedures in our scheme. Security analysis results confirm that REISCH is safe against some well-known attacks

A survey of IoT security based on a layered architecture of sensing and data analysis

The Internet of Things (IoT) is leading today’s digital transformation. Relying on a combination of technologies, protocols, and devices such as wireless sensors and newly developed wearable and implanted sensors, IoT is changing every aspect of daily life, especially recent applications in digital healthcare. IoT incorporates various kinds of hardware, communication protocols, and services. This IoT diversity can be viewed as a double-edged sword that provides comfort to users but can lead also to a large number of security threats and attacks. In this survey paper, a new compacted and optimized architecture for IoT is proposed based on five layers. Likewise, we propose a new classification of security threats and attacks based on new IoT architecture. The IoT architecture involves a physical perception layer, a network and protocol layer, a transport layer, an application layer, and a data and cloud services layer. First, the physical sensing layer incorporates the basic hardware used by IoT. Second, we highlight the various network and protocol technologies employed by IoT, and review the security threats and solutions. Transport protocols are exhibited and the security threats against them are discussed while providing common solutions. Then, the application layer involves application protocols and lightweight encryption algorithms for IoT. Finally, in the data and cloud services layer, the main important security features of IoT cloud platforms are addressed, involving confidentiality, integrity, authorization, authentication, and encryption protocols. The paper is concluded by presenting the open research issues and future directions towards securing IoT, including the lack of standardized lightweight encryption algorithms, the use of machine-learning algorithms to enhance security and the related challenges, the use of Blockchain to address security challenges in IoT, and the implications of IoT deployment in 5G and beyond