Security in Wireless Sensor Networks: Issues and Challenges

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology that shows great promise for various futuristic applications both for mass public and military. The sensing technology combined with processing power and wireless communication makes it lucrative for being exploited in abundance in future. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks. We identify the security threats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. We also discuss the holistic view of security for ensuring layered and robust security in wireless sensor networks.Comment: 6 page

KALwEN+: Practical Key Management Schemes for Gossip-Based Wireless Medical Sensor Networks

The constrained resources of sensors restrict the design of a key management scheme for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this work, we first formalize the security model of ALwEN, which is a gossip-based wireless medical sensor network (WMSN) for ambient assisted living. Our security model considers the node capture, the gossip-based network and the revocation problems, which should be valuable for ALwEN-like applications. Based on Shamir's secret sharing technique, we then propose two key management schemes for ALwEN, namely the KALwEN+ schemes, which are proven with the security properties defined in the security model. The KALwEN+ schemes not only fit ALwEN, but also can be tailored to other scalable wireless sensor networks based on gossiping

An Outline of Security in Wireless Sensor Networks: Threats, Countermeasures and Implementations

With the expansion of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the need for securing the data flow through these networks is increasing. These sensor networks allow for easy-to-apply and flexible installations which have enabled them to be used for numerous applications. Due to these properties, they face distinct information security threats. Security of the data flowing through across networks provides the researchers with an interesting and intriguing potential for research. Design of these networks to ensure the protection of data faces the constraints of limited power and processing resources. We provide the basics of wireless sensor network security to help the researchers and engineers in better understanding of this applications field. In this chapter, we will provide the basics of information security with special emphasis on WSNs. The chapter will also give an overview of the information security requirements in these networks. Threats to the security of data in WSNs and some of their counter measures are also presented

Common security issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks and IEEE 802.11 wireless mesh networks

Both Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) are multi-hop wireless networks. WMN is an emerging community based integrated broadband wireless network which ensures high bandwidth ubiquitous internet provision to users, while, WSN is application specific and ensures large scale real-time data processing in complex environment. Both these wireless networks have some common vulnerable features which may increase the chances of different sorts of security attacks. Wireless sensor nodes have computation, memory and power limitations, which do not allow for implementation of complex security mechanism. In this paper, we discuss the common limitations and vulnerable features of WMN and WSN, along with the associated security threats and possible countermeasures. We also propose security mechanisms keeping in view the architecture and limitations of both. This article will serve as a baseline guide for the new researchers who are concern with the security aspects of WMN and WSN

Security in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology that shows great promise for various futuristic applications both for mass public and military. The sensing technology combined with processing power and wireless communication makes it lucrative for being exploited in abundance in future. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks. We identify the security threats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. We also discuss the holistic view of security for ensuring layered and robust security in wireless sensor networks

Security Threats and Challenges for Wireless Sensor Network

A wireless sensor network is a network of a large number of independently working small sensing units which can communicate wirelessly. The basic plan of a Wireless sensor network (WSN) is to structural distribute self-determining devices using sensors to monitor physical or environmental conditions. Wireless communication technology performance different forms of security threats. WSN need effective security mechanisms because of these networks deployed in untended environments. Due to fixed limitations in wireless sensor networks, security is a crucial issue. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security-related threats and challenges in wireless sensor networks. The threats faced by this WSN are similar but not limited to those observed in a simple network of computers or Internet.We identify thesensorsecuritythreats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks

Secure Mechanism For Wireless Sensor Networks - A Review

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology that is very usefu l for various futuristic applications both for public and military. As the use of wireless sensor networks continue to grow, so it should require effective security mechanisms. So to ensure the security of communication and data access control in WSN is paramount importance. Because sensor networks may interact with sensitive data and operate in hostile unattended environments, it is important that these security concerns should be addressed from the beginning of the system design. However because of inh erent resource and computing constraints, security in sensor networks poses different challenges than traditional network security. There is currently enormous research is present in the field of wireless sensor network security. Thus, familiarity with t he wireless sensor network,attack on WSN and security systems design for WSN will benefit researchers greatly. With this in mind , I survey the major topics in wireless sensor network security, and presentmany of the current attacks, and finally list their corresponding defensive measure

Security Challenges and Efficient Security Solutions for Ad-Hoc Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless sensor networks sense the information, process them locally and communicate it to the outside world via satellite or Internet. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) use tiny, inexpensive sensor nodes with several distinguishing characteristics: they have very low processing power and radio ranges, permit very low energy consumption and perform limited and specific monitoring and sensing functions. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are widely used for applications such as environment monitoring, habitat monitoring, forest fire control, border surveillance and health monitoring due to their capability of establishing communications among peer nodes in a self-organizing and adapting manner, without any infrastructure. Sensor networks use radio frequencies as a communication medium, which is vulnerable of all active and passive attacks from adversaries. The sensor net-work must be protected to avoid attacks from external parties. This protection is provided by the security primitives. This paper mainly concerns with problems associated in developing security protocols for wireless sensor networks, their requirements, and different types of attacks on sensor networks. This paper describes secure solutions for collecting and processing data in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Adequate security capabilities for medium and large scale WSNs are a hard but necessary goal to achieve to prepare these networks for the market. The paper also includes security and reliability challenges and also security solution for WSNs