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TopSecurity Goals For Wireless Sensor Networks
A wireless sensor network is an ad hoc network, which requires every sensor node be independent and flexible enough to be self-organizing and self-healing according to different situations (Chan & Castelluccia, 2011). This inherent feature brings a great challenge to wireless sensor network security. Security goals for WSNs can be classified as primary and secondary (Table 1).
Table 1. | Primary Goals | Secondary Goals |
| Data Confidentiality | Data Freshness |
| Data Integrity | Time Synchronization |
| Data Authentication | Secure Localization |
| Data Availability | Self-Organization |
Key Terms in this Chapter
Active Attack: It is an attack characterized by the attacker attempting to break into the system. During an active attack, the intruder will introduce data into the system as well as potentially change data within the system.
MAC Security: A message authentication code (MAC) is a cryptographic checksum on data that uses a session key to detect both accidental and intentional modifications of the data.
Network Security: Network security is an over-arching term that describes that the policies and procedures implemented by a network administrator to avoid and keep track of unauthorized access, exploitation, modification, or denial of the network and network resources.
Intrusion Detection: Intrusion detection (ID) is a type of security management system. An ID system gathers and analyzes information from various areas within a network to identify possible security breaches, which include both intrusions (attacks from outside the organization) and misuse (attacks from within the organization).
Passive Attack: It an attack characterized by the attacker listening in on communication. In such an attack, the intruder/hacker does not attempt to break into the system or otherwise change data.
Wireless Sensor Network: WSN refers to a group of spatially dispersed and dedicated sensors for monitoring and recording the physical conditions of the environment and organizing the collected data at a central location. WSNs measure environmental conditions like temperature, sound, pollution levels, humidity, wind speed and direction, pressure, etc.
Sensor Nodes: A sensor node in a wireless sensor network is capable of performing some processing, gathering sensory information and communicating with other connected nodes in the Wireless sensor network.