Sensor network hardware security

• Published in: AIP conference proceedings Vol. 2570; no. 1
• Main Author: Tsvetanov, Filip
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 18.08.2022
• Subjects: Computer networks; Hardware; Integrated circuits; Nodes; Sensors; Wireless networks; Wireless sensor networks
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0099518
• ISSN: 0094-243X

Wireless sensor networks are distributed networks consisting of many tiny sensor nodes with limited resources. These networks play an extremely important role in people’s modern lives. Despite their great application, one of the critical issues in their design and operation is the security of sensor nodes, data, and entire network fragments. Security breaches through software attacks on sensor networks are currently the subject of much research by academia and the research community. Hardware Trojans (HTH) are malicious changes to hardware specifications during design or production in a way that alters the functionality of IC integrated circuits under conditions specified by the attacker. The discovery of HTH is a particularly difficult task in modern submicron technologies due to their intensive development. Our research shows that security threats and attacks based on hardware building sensor networks are real and not yet sufficiently studied, which is why this work focuses on the specifics of identifying this type of threat. The paper discusses and classifies hardware- specific hardware attacks. As a result of the study, some approaches to increase sensor networks’ hardware security have been identified and proposed. The results obtained in this work can be used to improve the means of protection of wireless sensor networks against various cyber-physical attacks.