Probably wirelessSeptember 04, 2008Verifying wireless hackers for homeland security Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) used to detect and report events including hurricanes, earthquakes, and forest fires and for military surveillance and antiterrorist activities are prone to subterfuge. In the International Journal of Security and Networks, computer scientists at Florida Atlantic University describe a new antihacking system to protect WSNs. Feng Li, Avinash Srinivasan, and Jie Wu explain that there are two types of cyber-sabotage that might occur on a WSN. The first is the fabricated report with false votes attack in which phony data is sent to the base station with forged validation. This presents the authorities monitoring a WSN for impending disaster with a quandary: if the data arriving from the network is validated but false, how can they know for sure? The second kind of attack adds false validation votes to genuine incoming data. The problem facing those monitoring the WSN now is if genuine data is being labeled as false, how to trust any data arriving from the WSN. Li and colleagues point out that most existing WSN systems have built-in software on the network that can ward off the first kind of attack so that false data usually cannot be given valid credentials and those monitoring the system will be able to spot subterfuge easily. However, WSNs are not usually protected against the second kind of attack, so that a genuine impending disaster cannot be verified remotely, which defeats the purpose of a WSN. The team has now devised a Probabilistic Voting-based Filtering Scheme (PVFS) to deal with both of these attacks simultaneously. They used a general en-route filtering scheme that can achieve strong protection against hackers while maintaining normal filtering to make the WSN viable. The scheme breaks WSNs into clusters, and locks each cluster to a particular data encryption key. As data reaches headquarters from the WSN clusters, the main cluster-heads along the path checks the report together with the votes, acting as the verification nodes in PVFS. The verification node is set up so that it will not drop a report immediately it finds a false vote, instead it will simply record the result. Only when the number of verified false votes reaches a designed threshold will a report be dropped. This way, should a saboteur compromise one or more sensors on any given WSN to launch an attack, the PVFS will apply probability rules to determine the likelihood that this has happened. It will do so based on data arriving from other sensors in different clusters before reporting incoming data as false. Detecting compromised sensors in a WSN in this way is of vital important to homeland security as well as successfully tracking natural events with the potential to devastate cities. By countering sabotage, false alarms that waste response efforts could be minimized in times of impending crisis. Inderscience Publishers |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Related Wireless Current Events and Wireless News Articles Mayo Clinic study shows people with heart devices can 'digest' advanced diagnostic technology safely A new Mayo Clinic study suggests that video capsule endoscopy (CE), a procedure that uses wireless technology in diagnosing intestinal disease, is safe for patients with heart devices. First in New York: Bionic technology aims to give sight to woman blinded beginning at age 13 A 50-year-old New York woman who was diagnosed with a progressive blinding disease at age 13 was implanted with an experimental electronic eye implant that has partially restored her vision. Smallest Nanoantennas for High-speed Data Networks More than 120 years after the discovery of the electromagnetic character of radio waves by Heinrich Hertz, wireless data transmission dominates information technology. Caltech scientists create robot surrogate for blind persons in testing visual prostheses Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a remote-controlled robot that is able to simulate the "visual" experience of a blind person who has been implanted with a visual prosthesis, such as an artificial retina. Radio waves 'see' through walls University of Utah engineers showed that a wireless network of radio transmitters can track people moving behind solid walls. The system could help police, firefighters and others nab intruders, and rescue hostages, fire victims and elderly people who fall in their homes. It also might help retail marketing and border control. New publication offers security tips for WiMAX networks Government agencies and other organizations planning to use WiMAX- Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access-networks can get technical advice on improving the security of their systems from a draft computer security guide prepared by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). TECNALIA presents innovative mobile robots which are autonomous and polyvalent TECNALIA Technological Corporation has introduced innovative robots at Euskotren's station in Atxuri (Bilbao) and which are mobile, multifunctional, collaborative, autonomous and polyvalent, suitable for a wide range of work from street cleaning and rubbish collection to accompanying elderly people. Measuring the next successful antennas for in-body health monitoring devices Antennas for the latest implanted medical devices are being developed by Queen Mary University of London and tested through a unique piece of kit at the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Watching over the water system After a big earthquake, it's key to keep the water system afloat. Water is necessary for life, and it fights the fires that often accompany such disasters. 34 US Nobel Laureates urge inclusion of $150 billion in climate legislation A group of 34 U.S. Nobel Laureates is calling on President Obama to urge Congress to include the president's proposed $150 billion Clean Energy Technology Fund in the climate legislation it is considering. More Wireless Current Events and Wireless News Articles |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||