Guideline for Mapping Security Solutions of Wireless Sensor Networks to Security Fundamentals

The application range goes from intelligent homes, logistic, health care to environmental monitoring. Together with the mobility of the end users, the request to stay informed, and the concept of Internet of Things, new opportunities such as to observe and manage deployed (wireless sensor) networks using mobile devices (e.g., Smartphone, handhelds) have emerged. Due to the fact that collected information is typically linked to sensitive informa- tion, such as address, login or location information, and is sent wireless, security is essential. In this case security is not limited to access control anymore, also the support of security fun- damentals (e.g., confidentiality, data integrity, accountability, availability, controlled access, freshness) are essential. Furthermore, trust and privacy is relevant when looking on the current concerns of users.

The task of this assignment is threefold. First, the security fundamentals must be selected and specified based on the literature. In a second step existing security solution for WSNs should be analysed and a range of selected solutions should be characterized in detail focusing on support for these security fundamentals. In the third step, those selected solutions should be mapped to the security fundamentals. The result will be a matrix with solution on the one axis and security fundamentals on the other axis. Based on the resulting matrix and the chosen application a guideline helps to find what solutions should be taken into account when looking for the support of a special combination of security funda- mentals. Based on the support of security fundamentals, a statement can be given on how trust and privacy will be supported. The latter, becomes important when developing user-specific solutions and when user concerns will be addressed as in the concept “privacy by design”. Finally, the established guidelines based on the matrix should be applied to a door lock system as an example scenario. Here the basic idea is to update access control using wireless communication instead of individually updating the doors by personel walking door to door. The result of this assignment is a state-of-the-art analysis of existing security solution for WSNs. Where those solutions are mapped to security fundamentals including also the aspect of trust and pri- vacy in the resulting matrix. Based on this mapping, a guideline is developed how to weight the secu- rity fundamentals to gain a special level of security. This process is driven by applications and concerns of developers and users.