1. INTRODUCTION1.1 Layout of Node1.2 Characteristics and requirements2. SECURITY THREATS2.1 Denial of Service Attacks2.1.1 Physical Layer DoS Attacks2.1.2 Link Layer DoS Attacks2.1.3 Network Layer DoS Attacks2.1.4 Transport Layer DoS Attacks2.2 Spoofed, Altered, or Replayed Routing Information2.3 Selective Forwarding2.4 Sinkhole Attacks2.5 Sybil Attack2.6 Wormhole Attack2.7 HELLO flood attack2.8 Acknowledgement Spoofing3. CONCLUSION4. REFERENCESSecurity Threats in Wireless Sensor NetworkJorge [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] this paper we present a introduction to wireless sensor networks, its usage in every environment followed by a brief overview of characteristics and requirements for deploying such a network. The different attacks on these networks are discussed. For each of these attacks, counter measures are presented if applicable.1. INTRODUCTIONIn almost every environment different kinds of sensors arein use. Sensors are used in buildings automation forcontrolling lights, access control, refrigeration control orHVAC control. Industrial automation uses different kindsof sensors such as sensors for temperature sensing andcontrol, pressure sensing, level sensing and machinerymonitoring. Power and utility automation use sensors forremote reading of residential meters or for powerdistribution diagnostics. Environmentalist uses them forenvironmental monitoring to measure air and water qualityas well as seismic activity, health specialist uses them fortele-health monitoring and diagnostics where theysignificantly reduce overall medical costs by enablinghome-based proactive monitoring and medical care, likepersonalized patient-based monitoring techniques formeasuring the heart rate or respiration . Sensors can alsobe used for maintaining the integrity and safety ofbuildings, industrial facilities, roadways, water suppliesand other public infrastructure. In short – different kindsof sensors are used in our day to day environment todetect, monitor, collect data obtained in differentenvironments. Nowadays several different wire-based or actuatorsnetwork products can be found in building automation,industrial automation, security systems or automotivesystems. Wired sensors though of great use share some;namely are expensive to install, inflexible once installed,limited in size, in complexity, in functionality and arehighly obtrusive in existing infrastructure. On the otherhand wireless sensor networks are not restricted by theselimitations. Wireless sensor networks offer advantages in terms ofscalability for multi-hop networks with ten to thousands ofdevices, robustness because of self reconfigurations anddistributed intelligence, profitability through lowinstallation costs and flexibility in terms of wireless datacollections. The application of their operation includesbuilding controls (fire alarms systems), thermo technologyclimate control systems, in military for tracking andmonitoring borders and so on. This shows that the contentof transmitted data covers a spectrum of applications fromlow security like thermo technology to the high securityrequirement for military purposes. Depending on the kind of application it might be necessaryto transmit information to other parties. Data collected byoutside temperature sensors might be forwarded to acomputing system which uses the information for weatherforecast applications. The security system, which forexample detects an alarm, might inform the owner directlyby email or an SMS about the alarm in his house, besidescontacting security facilities.It must be ensured that a central unit is able to collect thedata and information about the wireless sensor network.Therefore, a connection from the wireless sensor networkto this central unit is required. Hence the challenge thatlies with wireless sensor networks is the security of datatransmission, reduce power consumption and costreduction. Figure 1, shows the layout of a sensor networks wheresensor nodes are used to collect the data which is passedthrough a transit network through multi –hops to reach thebase station where the processing of data takes place andthen it is forwarded to data service center for storage andanalysis of the data collected takes place. Figure 1: Layout of Wireless Sensor Networks [2]1.1 Layout of Node Figure 2: shows a typical layout of a sensor node whichcomprises of a power unit which is the battery, aprocessing unit which consist of the memory andembedded processor (Tiny OS which is mostly used as aoperating system) , a sensing unit the sensor and acommunication unit that is the transceiver.With the flow of information dictating the criticality ofthese applications, it is pertinent to secure these networksfrom malicious or destructive entities and threats.This motivates the need of security for Sensor Networks.Therefore we look into various threats that could hamperthe integrity of this network.Figure 2: Layout of a node [3]1.2 Characteristics and requirementsIn this section, the different physical characteristics arediscussed. Knowing these will help in understanding thedifficulties in implement a truly secured solution inwireless sensor networks.- Small in size and low power consumption: Wirelesssensors or nodes are small in size so that they can beplaced in any environment such as to monitor firealarms, road traffic, forests, oceans, etc. Being smalladds to the ease of use and also brings up the issue ofpower consumption. These devices are made to utilizelow power for computation, processing and datatransfer to enable energy efficiency. As it is unfeasibleto recharge thousands of nodes every month or inweeks.- Concurrency–intensive operation: The prime goal ofwireless sensors is to allow data flow within thenetwork with minimum amount of processing at eachnode. The communication is established bycommunicating through multi-hop in order for
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