Sensor data security level estimation scheme for wireless sensor networks.

Alex Ramos,Raimir Filho

doi:10.3390/s150102104

Abstract

Due to their increasing dissemination, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become the target of more and more sophisticated attacks, even capable of circumventing both attack detection and prevention mechanisms. This may cause WSN users, who totally trust these security mechanisms, to think that a sensor reading is secure, even when an adversary has corrupted it. For that reason, a scheme capable of estimating the security level (SL) that these mechanisms provide to sensor data is needed, so that users can be aware of the actual security state of this data and can make better decisions on its use. However, existing security estimation schemes proposed for WSNs fully ignore detection mechanisms and analyze solely the security provided by prevention mechanisms. In this context, this work presents the sensor data security estimator (SDSE), a new comprehensive security estimation scheme for WSNs. SDSE is designed for estimating the sensor data security level based on security metrics that analyze both attack prevention and detection mechanisms. In order to validate our proposed scheme, we have carried out extensive simulations that show the high accuracy of SDSE estimates.

Highlights

In any network, assessing the security level of transmitted information is an essential step for decision making
With the increasing use of sensor networks and the large number of important decisions being made from sensed data, the need for a suitable scheme for estimating the data security level is more and more evident
The sensor data security estimator proposed may provide a significant contribution regarding security quantification in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for being a scheme that takes into account both prevention and detection mechanisms and for defining metrics based on mathematical equations that use configuration parameters of the network itself and its mechanisms

Summary

Introduction

In any network, assessing the security level of transmitted information is an essential step for decision making. In order to estimate the security level of data from a network, it is necessary to evaluate factors that change dynamically, such as different network configurations (e.g., connectivity) and different security mechanism settings (e.g., cryptographic keys shared by the sensors). The basis for estimating data security level in sensor networks is to assess both the vulnerabilities and strengths of the different security mechanisms installed, such as key management schemes (KMSs) and intrusion detection systems (IDSs) [2]. This means that the impact of an attack in a sensor network depends on the effectiveness and vulnerabilities of the security mechanisms deployed. Quantifying the probability of the resistance of security mechanisms against attacks is exactly the goal of security level estimation activity

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Conclusion