Efficient distribution of fragmented sensor data for obfuscation

Abstract

The inherent nature of unattended sensors makes these devices most vulnerable to detection, exploitation, and denial in contested environments. Physical access is often cited as the easiest way to compromise any device or network. A new mechanism for mitigating these types of attacks developed under the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, ASD(R&E) project, “Smoke Screen in Cyberspace”, was previously demonstrated in a live, over-the-air experiment. Smoke Screen encrypts, slices up, and disburses redundant fragments of files throughout the network. This paper describes enhancements to the disbursement of the file fragments routing improving the efficiency and time to completion of fragment distribution by defining the exact route, fragments should take to the destination. This is the first step in defining a custom protocol for the discovery of participating nodes and the efficient distribution of fragments in a mobile network. Future work will focus on the movement of fragments to avoid traffic analysis and avoid the collection of the entire fragment set that would enable an adversary to reconstruct the original piece of data.