Forward-secure aggregate message authentication code

As wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are usually deployed in remote and hostile environments to transmit sensitive information, sensor nodes are prone to node compromise attacks and security issues such as data confidentiality and integrity. Data integrity is guaranteed by the message authentication code (MAC). In this paper, a forward-secure aggregate message authentication code scheme is proposed. In view of the limited space and communication facility of WSNs, this scheme allows a collection of MAC tags to be able to be compressed into one short MAC tag. Furthermore, forward security can ensure that all previously generated MAC tags can be still considered to be valid even after the sensor is compromised.