Wireless sensor networks - a security perspective

Increased interest in the field of wireless sensor networks has proved that wireless sensor networks can have a broad variety of applications. Current applications of wireless sensor networks are in the fields of medical care, battlefield monitoring, environment monitoring, surveillance and disaster prevention. Many of these applications require that the sensor network be deployed in an area that is hostile, inaccessible and mission critical. Keeping in view the resource starved nature of sensor networks and its application domains, the requirements for a secure sensor network has become two fold. We have analyzed sensor networks from a security perspective by pointing out vulnerabilities in sensor networks. A summary of threat models and security benchmarks has also been pointed out to explain the aims and objectives of a secure wireless senor network. We have also explained various attacks and their prevention mechanisms.