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Wireless Sensor Networks pp 83–115Cite as

Security in WSNs

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Abstract

Security in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is centered on six fundamental requirements namely, authentication, confidentiality, integrity, reliability, availability and data freshness [4, 39, 52, 62]. In this chapter, we describe these requirements, the different kinds of attacks that aim to compromise these requirements (and hence the security of a WSN) and the defense mechanisms that can be employed to overcome these attacks.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA, USA

    Rastko R. Selmic

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA

    Vir V. Phoha

  3. Department of Computer Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Abdul Serwadda

Authors
  1. Rastko R. Selmic
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  2. Vir V. Phoha
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  3. Abdul Serwadda
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rastko R. Selmic .

Questions and Exercises

Questions and Exercises

  1. 1.

    What are the advantages of random key pre-distribution (RKP) relative to centralized key distribution in WSNs?

  2. 2.

    Briefly describe the shortcomings of RKP and the general philosophy of operation of some of the schemes that have been designed to address these shortcomings.

  3. 3.

    Briefly describe the steps through which a keyed checksum can be used to verify the integrity of messages exchanged between WSN nodes.

  4. 4.

    Under what conditions would it be feasible to apply asymmetric key cryptography in WSNs?

  5. 5.

    Use MATLAB to simulate an RKP scheme in which 1000 nodes create key rings containing m keys drawn from a pool of 50 keys for m = 2, 5, 10 and 20. Comment on the connectivity of the network for the different values of m. Assume the keys are the numbers 1 through 50.

  6. 6.

    What is the difference between a wormhole attack and a black hole attack? In your opinion which of these attacks would be more difficult to detect in practice? Give a reason for your answer.

  7. 7.

    Assume that sensor data follow sinusoidal function in time with amplitude of 10. Give an example of an outlier sensor fault and how would you set the threshold parameters in such a case? Does the sampling rate affects the fault model and how?

  8. 8.

    What would be the scenario where the spike fault would overlap with the outlier fault? Can this be prevented?

  9. 9.

    How does the variance fault differ from the high frequency noise fault? Which class set is a superset of the other?

  10. 10.

    Use MATLAB to simulate a high frequency noise fault for a simple data set you create. Then tune fault parameters such that the fault can be effectively detected.

  11. 11.

    Suppose that a sensor is producing sinusoidal type of data over time \(z_{1} (t) = 5\sin (wt)\). At a certain moment there is a gain fault of value 2. How would a faulty data look like and what other faults could be triggered at that moment? Would any other fault be triggered at steady state value of sensor data, i.e., after fault has already occurred?

  12. 12.

    Consider a real life scenario of a sensor with saturation limits at the output. If the drift fault occurs, after some time, what would such fault look like? Any fault detection after long time period will identify what kind of sensor problem?

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Selmic, R.R., Phoha, V.V., Serwadda, A. (2016). Security in WSNs. In: Wireless Sensor Networks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46769-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46769-6_4

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