Secure Hop-by-Hop Aggregation of End-to-End Concealed Data in Wireless Sensor Networks

In-network data aggregation is an essential technique in mission critical wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for achieving effective transmission and hence better power conservation. Common security protocols for aggregated WSNs are either hop-by-hop or end-to-end, each of which has its own encryption schemes considering different security primitives. End-to-end encrypted data aggregation protocols introduce maximum data secrecy with in-efficient data aggregation and more vulnerability to active attacks, while hop-by-hop data aggregation protocols introduce maximum data integrity with efficient data aggregation and more vulnerability to passive attacks. In this paper, we propose a secure aggregation protocol for aggregated WSNs deployed in hostile environments in which dual attack modes are present. Our proposed protocol is a blend of flexible data aggregation as in hop-by-hop protocols and optimal data confidentiality as in end-to-end protocols. Our protocol introduces an efficient O(1) heuristic for checking data integrity along with cost-effective heuristic-based divide and conquer attestation process which is $O(\ln{n})$ in average -O(n) in the worst scenario- for further verification of aggregated results

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

SECURED DATA AGGREGATION METHODS IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS USING HOMOMORPHIC OPERATION - A REVIEW

Wireless sensor networks are energy constrained. Data aggregation is an important mechanism for achieving energy efficiency in such networks. The aggregation reduces redundancy in data transmission which results in improved energy usage. Several security issues are there in data aggregation, which includes data confidentiality, data integrity, availability, and freshness. Such issues become complex since WSN is deployed in hostile and unattended environment. So the sensor nodes may fail and compromised by adversaries. Secured data aggregation in sensor network is a topic of research.  Many solutions are proposed for secured data aggregation, using different encryption methods. Homomorphic encryption is one of such technique. In homomorphic encryption, all the nodes participate in the aggregation. Here, nodes can't see any intermediate or final result but the aggregation is efficient. In this paper, secured data aggregation methods are classified and the performance is compared in terms of integrity and confidentiality

Secure data aggregation in wireless sensor networks: A survey

Data aggregation is a widely used technique in wireless sensor networks. The security issues, data confidentiality and integrity, in data aggregation become vital when the sensor network is deployed in a hostile environment. There has been many related work proposed to address these security issues. In this paper we survey these work and classify them into two cases: hop-by-hop encrypted data aggregation and end-to-end encrypted data aggregation. We also propose two general frameworks for the two cases respectively. The framework for end-to-end encrypted data aggregation has higher computation cost on the sensor nodes, but achieves stronger security, in comparison with the framework for hop-by-hop encrypted data aggregation.Yingpeng Sang, Hong Shen, Yasushi Inoguchi, Yasuo Tan, Naixue Xion

Resilient networking in wireless sensor networks

This report deals with security in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), especially in network layer. Multiple secure routing protocols have been proposed in the literature. However, they often use the cryptography to secure routing functionalities. The cryptography alone is not enough to defend against multiple attacks due to the node compromise. Therefore, we need more algorithmic solutions. In this report, we focus on the behavior of routing protocols to determine which properties make them more resilient to attacks. Our aim is to find some answers to the following questions. Are there any existing protocols, not designed initially for security, but which already contain some inherently resilient properties against attacks under which some portion of the network nodes is compromised? If yes, which specific behaviors are making these protocols more resilient? We propose in this report an overview of security strategies for WSNs in general, including existing attacks and defensive measures. In this report we focus at the network layer in particular, and an analysis of the behavior of four particular routing protocols is provided to determine their inherent resiliency to insider attacks. The protocols considered are: Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), Gradient-Based Routing (GBR), Greedy Forwarding (GF) and Random Walk Routing (RWR)