Securing Mobile Unattended WSNs against a Mobile Adversary

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Speaker: Roberto di Pietro from Department of Mathematics, Roma Tre University

Time and Place: 10:15 in Room 4523

Title: Securing Mobile Unattended WSNs against a Mobile Adversary

Abstract Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) security is complicated by the lack of inexpensive tamper resistant hardware in commodity sensors. Indeed, once an adversary compromises a sensor, all memory and forms of storage become exposed, along with all secrets. Thereafter, any cryptographic remedy ceases to be effective. Regaining sensor security after compromise (i.e., intrusion-resilience) is a formidable challenge.

Prior approaches that rely on either (1) the presence of an on-line trusted third party (sink), or (2) the availability of a True Random Number Generator (TRNG) on each sensor, cannot be adopted in large-scale Unattended Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs), composed of low-cost commodity sensors and characterized by the intermittent presence of a sink.

In this talk, we explore intrusion resilience in Mobile UWSNs in the presence of a powerful mobile adversary. We show how the choice of the sensor mobility model influences intrusion resilience with respect to this adversary. We also exploreotocols that require only local communication. Results indicate that sensor density and neighborhood variability are the two key parameters affecting intrusion resilience. Findings are supported by extensive analyses and simulations.