DAM: A Theoretical Framework for SensorSecurity in IoT Applications

As IoT applications are pervasively deployed across multiple domains, the potential impact of their security vulnerabilities are also accentuated. Sensor nodes represent a critical security vulnerability in the IoT ecosystem as they are exposed to the environment and accessible to hackers. When compromised or manipulated, sensor nodes can transmit incorrect data which can have a damaging impact on the overall operation and effectiveness of the system. Researchers have addressed the security vulnerabilities in sensor nodes with several mechanisms being proposed to address them. This paper presents DAM (Detect, Avoid, Mitigate), a theoretical framework to evaluate the security threats and solutions for sensor security in IoT applications and deployments. The framework leads to the classification of sensor security threats and categorization of available solutions which can be used to either detect vulnerabilities and attacks, recover from them or completely avoid them. The proposed framework will be useful for evaluating sensor security in real-world IoT deployments in terms of potential threats and designing possible solution

A physical unclonable neutron sensor for nuclear arms control inspections

Classical sensor security relies on cryptographic algorithms executed on trusted hardware. This approach has significant shortcomings, however. Hardware can be manipulated, including below transistor level, and cryptographic keys are at risk of extraction attacks. A further weakness is that sensor media themselves are assumed to be trusted, and any authentication and encryption is done ex situ and a posteriori. Here we propose and demonstrate a different approach to sensor security that does not rely on classical cryptography and trusted electronics. We designed passive sensor media that inherently produce secure and trustworthy data, and whose honest and non-malicious nature can be easily established. As a proof-of-concept, we manufactured and characterized the properties of non-electronic, physical unclonable, optically complex media sensitive to neutrons for use in a high-security scenario: the inspection of a military facility to confirm the absence or presence of nuclear weapons and fissile materials.

A Security Concept Based on Scaler Distribution of a Novel Intrusion Detection Device for Wireless Sensor Networks in a Smart Environment

Following the significant improvement of technology in terms of data collection and treatment during the last decades, the notion of a smart environment has widely taken an important pedestal in the science industry. Built in order to better manage assets, smart environments provide a livable environment for users or citizens through the deployment of sensors responsible for data collection. Much research has been done to provide security to the involved data, which are extremely sensitive. However, due to the small size and the memory constraint of the sensors, many of these works are difficult to implement. In this paper, a different concept for wireless sensor security in smart environments is presented. The proposed security system, which is based on the scaler distribution of a novel electronic device, the intrusion detection system (IDS), reduces the computational functions of the sensors and therefore maximizes their efficiency. The IDS also introduces the concept of the feedback signal and “trust table” used to trigger the detection and isolation mechanism in case of attacks. Generally, it ensures the whole network security through cooperation with other IDSs and, therefore, eliminates the problem of security holes that may occur while adopting such a security technique.