Investigating the security threats in Vehicular ad hoc Networks (VANETs): Towards security engineering for safer on-road transportation

The state-of-the-art improvements in cellular communication and ubiquitous availability of internet have led to significant breakthroughs in intelligent transportation systems where connectivity, autonomous driving and infotainment play a pivotal role in the enhanced driving experience. The Vehicle ad hoc Networks (VANET) have emerged as a distinguished branch of wireless communication pertaining to transportation systems. VANET is intended to dispense on-road vehicle safety and to boost the comfort experienced by drivers, passengers and other commuters. Whereas VANET offers exciting applications and explores unfamiliar dimensions in transportation, concerns regarding VANET security also continue to intensify. Security of vehicular networks, the authenticity and integrity of data dissemination remains a concern of utmost significance in VANET deployment. VANET architecture, by virtue of an abundance of networked vehicles, is susceptible to illegal use, unauthorized access, protocol tunneling, eavesdropping, and denial-of-service as the vehicles are unknowingly exposed to illegitimate information from unidentified adversaries. This paper investigates the security aspects of VANET and the attacks and vulnerabilities the VANET architecture is prone to. The study of security features and flaws is expected to lead to developed broadcasting and routing services, adding to the quality-of-service. Due to mobility of vehicles, large scale networks, rapidly restructuring nodes and frequently changing topological structure; a fundamental requirement of VANETs is to ensure safe transmission of the time critical data. The paper examines various security threats in VANETs, analyses how they are implemented and their impact on the VANET security architecture. A few gaps in the VANET security frameworks have also been highlighted which can be worked upon in the future.