This project is funded by Structural Funds of the European Union (ESF) and state budget of the Czech Republic
Overview on Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Sensor
Networks Dr. Tarek Gaber
Computer Science Department,
VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech
Faculty of Computers & Informatics
Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
Lecture Outlines
Why security is important in WSN
Algorithms to achieve security services
Why security is complex in WSN
Some Attacks to WSN
Trust and Reputation in WSN
Security, functionality, and ease of use
How to Stay Safe While using WiFi
Why Security is Important for WSN
• WSNs have many applications e.g.:
– military, homeland security
– assessing disaster zones
– Others.
• This means that such sensor networks have mission-critical tasks.
• Security is crucial for such WSNs deployed in these hostile environments.
Why Security is Important for WSN
• Moreover, wireless communication employed by WSN facilitates
– eavesdropping and
– packet injection by an adversary.
• These mentioned factors require security for WSN during the design stage to ensure operation safety, secrecy of sensitive data, and privacy for people in sensor environments.
Algorithms to achieve security services
Symmetric Encryption
Example: AES Algorithm
Asymmetric Encryption
Example: RSA Algorithm
Hash Function/Algorithm
Digital Signature
Why Security is Complex in WSN
• Because of WSNs Characteristics:
– Anti-jamming and physical temper proofing are impossible
• greater design complexity and energy consumption
– Denial-of-service (DoS) attack is difficult
• Sensor node constraints
– Sensor nodes are susceptible to physical capture
• Deploying in hostile environment.
– eavesdropping and injecting malicious message are easy
• Using wireless communication
Why Security is Complex in WSN • Because of WSNs Characteristics:
– maximization of security level is challenging
• Resource consumption
– asymmetric cryptography is often too expensive
• Node constraints
– centralized security solutions are big issue
• no central control and constraints, e.g. small memory capacity.
• Cost Issues
– Overall cost of WSN should be as low as possible.
Typical Attacks to WSN
Physical Attacks • Environmental
– Permanently destroy the node, e.g., crashing or stealing a node.
• Attacks at the Physical Layer – Jamming: transmission of a radio signal to interfere with WSN radio
frequencies. – Constant jamming: No message are able to be sent or received. – Intermittent jamming: Nodes are able to exchange messages periodically
Jamming Attack Countermeasure
• Most common defense against jamming attacks is to use spread-spectrum communication techniques • there are different channels to deliver the signal
Physical Attacks • Node Capture Attacks
– routing functionalities
• Countermeasure
– tamper-proof features • Expensive solution
– Self-Protection
– disable device when attack detected
Attacks on Routing • Sinkhole attack
– attacker tries to attract the traffic from a particular region through it
• Solution:
– Watchdog Nodes can start to trace the source of false routing information
Attacks on Routing • Sybil attack (Identity Spoofing)
– attacker claims to have multiple identities or locations
– provide wrong information for routing to launch false routing attacks
• Solutions: – Misbehavior Detection.
– Identity Protection
Privacy Attacks
• Attempts to obtain sensitive information collected and communicated in WSNs
– Eavesdropping
• made easy by broadcast nature of wireless networks
– Traffic analysis
• used to identify sensor nodes of interest (data of interest),
WSN Privacy Issues Cont.
WSN Privacy Issues Attack
Trust and reputation in WSN
WSN Traditional Security Techniques
• Cryptographic primitives and authentication mechanisms are not suitable for WSNs
– Asymmetric cryptography is often too expensive
– Node constraints
– power consumption
– centralized security administration
– Once the keys are leaked, security mechanisms may become ineffective
Trust and Reputation
• Examples of reputation systems:
– eBay reputation system, …
• Relationship between reputation and trust:
– Reputation can be used as an output in order to derive trust
• These systems can:
– identify malicious nodes,
– computes a trust rating of the node and
– exclude the nodes from the network
– offer a prediction of one's future behavior,
Trust Systems
Example of Trust in WSN • In order to find a secure route,
– Trust values will be evaluated
– the trust results will help to select the trustworthy next-hop node
– through the trusted nodes, the source node will forward data to the sink node
The Security, Functionality, and Ease of Use Triangle
How to Stay Safe While using WiFi
• Treat all public WiFi links with suspicion: It’s virtually impossible to tell the difference between a safe and an unsafe network.
• When using public WiFi, avoid doing anything sensitive: Don’t buy anything, login to your financial accounts, or even send email when accessing public WiFi networks. Wait until you get back home to your secure network to do those kinds of things. Better to be safe than sorry.
• Make sure you are using antivirus software: It’s not a foolproof solution, but antivirus software can help repel most known attacks.
• Think about using identity protection and monitoring services: This is a great way to protect yourself and your family from identity theft.
• Use a VPN: A VPN like PRIVATE WiFi allows you to use public WiFi networks as if they were private and secure. A VPN is a good solution to possible man-in-the-middle attacks if you must use public WiFi.
References • Dargie, Waltenegus, and Christian Poellabauer. Fundamentals
of wireless sensor networks: theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
• http://techathon.mytechlabs.com/web-application-security-testing/
• Kumar, Pardeep, and Hoon-Jae Lee. "Security issues in healthcare applications using wireless medical sensor networks: A survey." Sensors 12.1 (2011): 55-91.
• http://www.privatewifi.com/csid-recommends-using-a-vpn-to-stop-man-in-the-middle-attacks/
• http://techathon.mytechlabs.com/web-application-security-testing/
• http://en.kryptotel.net/encryption.html
Thank you
Dr. Tarek Gaber
Ostrava, ….. (04 December 2014)
This project is funded by Structural Funds of the European Union and state budget of the Czech Republic
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