An application-driven perspective on wireless sensor network security

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently attracted a lot of interest due to the range of applications they enable. Unfortunately, WSNs are exposed to numerous security threats that can adversely affect the success of important applications. Securing WSNs is challenging due to their unique nature as an application and a network, and due to their limited capabilities. In this paper, we argue that the WSN security research generally considers mechanisms that are modeled after and evaluated against abstract applications and WSN organizations. Instead, we propose that an effective solution for WSNs must be sensitive to the application and infrastructure. We propose an application-specific security context as the combination of a potential attacker’s motivation and the WSN vulnerability. The vulnerability is a function of factors such as the sensor field, the WSN infrastructure, the application, protocols and system software, as well the accessibility and the observability of the...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: MSWIM
• Authors: Eric Sabbah, Adnan Majeed, Kyoung-Don Kang, Ke Liu, Nael B. Abu-Ghazaleh
• Keywords: Modelling And Simulation, MSWIM 2006, Security, Sensor Networks, WSN Security Research