Information assurance in wireless sensor networks

Networking unattended wireless sensors is expected to have significant impact on the efficiency of a large array of military and non-military applications. The main goal of wireless sensor networks is to obtain globally meaningful information from strictly local gleaned by individual sensor nodes. The network is deployed such that the sensors are embedded, possibly at random, in a target environment. However, a wireless sensor network is only as good as the information it produces. In this respect, the most important concern is information assurance. Indeed, in most application domains sensor networks constitute a mission critical component requiring commensurate security protection. Sensor network communications must prevent disclosure and undetected modification of exchanged messages. Due to the fact that individual sensor nodes are anonymous and that communication among sensors is via wireless links, sensor networks are highly vulnerable to security attacks. If an adversary can thwart the work of the network by perturbing the information produced, stopping production, or pilfering information, then the perceived usefulness of sensor networks would be drastically curtailed. Thus, security is a major issue that must be resolved in order for the potential of wireless sensor networks to be fully exploited.