Detection of Compromised Sensor Nodes in Heterogeneous Sensor Networks

Abstract

An attacker can capture sensor nodes operating in an unattended environment, load malicious code in the nodes, and then redeploy the compromised nodes into the network. These nodes can launch various kinds of insider attacks and cause severe damage to the network. Thus, fast and efficient detection of compromised nodes in wireless sensor networks is a critical security issue. In this paper, we adopt a Heterogeneous Sensor Network (HSN) model to achieve better security and performance. We present an effective and efficient scheme for detecting compromised nodes by utilizing powerful high-end sensors in HSNs. We compare our scheme with an existing detection scheme. The performance evaluation shows that our scheme is more efficient and has much higher detection rate than the existing one.