A Proactive Data Security Framework for Mission-Critical Wireless Sensor Networks

The resource-constrained sensors in mission-critical applications are subject to both random failures and intentional compromise by the adversary, which poses severe security threats in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The different types of security threats have been identified and addressed in an individual manner in the past. And most solutions are cryptography based. In this paper, we argue that cryptography alone is insufficient to fully address the insider attacks in the existence of both the compromised and faulty sensor nodes. We further propose a proactive data security framework (PDSF) to identify compromised and faulty nodes proactively and prohibit them from participating network activities in a dynamic manner. PDSF is aimed to serve as the front line in defending against all different types of security threats. The rationale behind our approach is that a sensor’s future behavior can be predicted (at least) probabilistically by its past behavior. PDSF is divided into two key modules, that is, misbehavior characterization & monitoring, and trust management. PDSF characterizes different types of misbehavior in WSNs and defines a set of monitoring criteria. PDSF further develops a trust management model, which adapts to the resource constrained nature of the WSNs.