Eliana Stavrou | Uclan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Eliana Stavrou

Research paper thumbnail of Security in future mobile sensor networks issues and challenges

Existing security research in wireless sensor networks is based on specific assumptions about the... more Existing security research in wireless sensor networks is based on specific assumptions about the nodes and the network environment that are tied to specific usage scenarios. Typical scenarios consider sensor nodes that are immobile and have pre-defined communication patterns. We argue that node mobility is a realistic characteristic of sensor nodes that needs to be taken into consideration in future

Research paper thumbnail of e-healthcare Security Framework: DITIS Case Study

E-healthcare applications have demanding security needs due to the critical nature of the healthc... more E-healthcare applications have demanding security needs due to the critical nature of the healthcare environment. Before designing a security strategy, it is important to identify areas of focus that are vulnerable and need protection. A number of security issues should be addressed including: privacy, confidentiality, integrity, legal and ethical considerations.

Research paper thumbnail of Recovering from the selective forwarding attack in WSNs - enhancing the recovery benefits of blacklisting and rerouting using directional antennas

2014 International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), 2014

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) face a number of security challenges that can compromise their op... more Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) face a number of security challenges that can compromise their operation. A typical security attack that can be launched by an adversary, in order to affect the network's communication, is the selective forwarding attack. If compromisation occurs, it is essential to recover the network to a stable state. In the context of mission-critical WSNs the challenge is not just to recover from compromisation but it is vital to restore an enhanced network operation in order to support a reliable decisionmaking. Sensor nodes usually address the selective forwarding attack by deploying blacklisting and rerouting. These countermeasures have been proposed in the context of omni-directional networks. This research work investigates the utilization of directional antennas in WSNs in order to increase the recovery benefits gained by the blacklisting and rerouting countermeasures in terms of reliability, survivability and responsiveness, attributes that are vital for the operation of mission-critical applications.

Research paper thumbnail of Security evaluation methodology for intrusion recovery protocols in wireless sensor networks

Proceedings of the 15th ACM international conference on Modeling, analysis and simulation of wireless and mobile systems - MSWiM '12, 2012

Researchers have designed intrusion recovery protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) with the... more Researchers have designed intrusion recovery protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) with the aim of restoring compromised services and promoting a secure and reliable environment in WSNs. Evaluating the correctness and effectiveness of the intrusion recovery protocols is a challenging task. Often, researchers do not identify all the necessary aspects that need to be considered for the assessment of these protocols and also what attributes to measure. This leads to important aspects not been evaluated, therefore the comparison and evaluation of intrusion recovery protocols becomes hard to make. Comparing intrusion recovery protocols is even more challenging as researchers use different criteria to evaluate their protocol in terms of intrusion recovery aspects. This paper proposes an evaluation methodology to aid the evaluation and comparison of intrusion recovery protocols in WSNs. The methodology defines the intrusion recovery protocol aspects that should be evaluated using a number of evaluation criteria and guides researchers identifying the evaluation direction they should follow. The evaluation and comparison of existing intrusion recovery protocols is demonstrated using the proposed methodology.

Research paper thumbnail of Combating persistent adversaries in wireless sensor networks using directional antennas

2011 18th International Conference on Telecommunications, 2011

Security is an important property in applications offering services in mission-critical areas, su... more Security is an important property in applications offering services in mission-critical areas, such as in healthcare, military, transportation, etc. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) support the mission of these applications by monitoring the environment and reporting observations to appropriate authorities that are responsible for decision-making. Often, their operation can be at risk by adversaries that launch attacks against the WSN with the aim of compromising the reliability and availability of the network and the respective application. The outcome of an attack highly depends on the experience of the adversary and his capabilities in terms of programming skills, security knowledge and resources. From the network perspective, the challenge is to reliably recover to a normal operation as soon as the adversary is been detected and allow for packet delivery to destination. The challenge is even greater in the presence of adversaries that adapt their intrusion strategy to break the deployed recovery countermeasures and continue affecting the network. Proposed recovery countermeasures typically assume the use of omni-directional antennas, which cannot take advantage of antenna directivity in order to manipulate communication paths between WSN nodes for the purpose of (physically) bypassing an adversary. This paper presents an intrusion recovery protocol in WSNs that uses directional antennas to create controlled communication paths, thus routing, and enhancing the reliability, self-healingness and resilience of the network. The proposed protocol is implemented within the AODV context and evaluated using ns-2. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol to deliver packets to the destination in the presence of multiple persistent adversaries that deploy different types of simple to extended attacks.

Research paper thumbnail of A survey on secure multipath routing protocols in WSNs

Computer Networks, 2010

Routing protocols in wireless sensor networks (WSN) have been substantially investigated by resea... more Routing protocols in wireless sensor networks (WSN) have been substantially investigated by researches. Most state-of-the-art surveys have focused on reviewing the different routing schemes that have been proposed for WSN and classifying them based on the network"s type and protocol"s operation. Security aspects in routing protocols have not been given enough attention, since most of the routing protocols in WSNs have not been designed with security requirements in mind. However, taking into consideration that WSN applications need to support critical infrastructures (i.e. military, healthcare, environmental etc), security becomes an issue. And since these infrastructures are highly depended on the availability of resources, focus has especially been given to support a secure, resilient and reliable environment, with multipath routing being one of the added functionalities. The need for security in sensitive WSN application has lead researchers to design secure multipath routing protocols from the beginning or design security extensions for existing protocols. This paper surveys the current state-of-the-art of secure multipath routing protocols in WSNs, classifies the protocols in categories according to their security-related operational objectives, defines a new threat model in the routing procedure and identifies open research issues in the area.

Research paper thumbnail of Security in future mobile sensor networks issues and challenges

Existing security research in wireless sensor networks is based on specific assumptions about the... more Existing security research in wireless sensor networks is based on specific assumptions about the nodes and the network environment that are tied to specific usage scenarios. Typical scenarios consider sensor nodes that are immobile and have pre-defined communication patterns. We argue that node mobility is a realistic characteristic of sensor nodes that needs to be taken into consideration in future sensor networks. Mobility capabilities can address the objective challenges raised in mission-critical applications, such as in disaster relief, where their environment characteristics fluctuate over time. It is imperative to investigate the way security is affected in mobile sensor networks and identify the challenges that will need to be addressed in future security protocol design. We present our vision for future sensor networks through a realistic scenario and discuss security gaps that are present in existing research for next generation sensor networks.

Research paper thumbnail of Securing Mobile Healthcare Systems based on Information Classification: DITIS Case Study

Healthcare applications require special attention regarding security issues since healthcare is a... more Healthcare applications require special attention regarding security issues since healthcare is associated with mission critical services that are connected with the well being of life. Security raises special considerations when mobility is introduced in the healthcare environment. This research work proposes a security framework for mobile healthcare systems based on information classification into security levels. By categorizing the information used in mobile healthcare systems and linking it with the security objectives and security technologies, we aim in balancing the trade-off between security complexity and performance. Furthermore, this paper discusses a number of issues that are raised in the healthcare environment: privacy, confidentiality, integrity, legal and ethical considerations.

Research paper thumbnail of Vulnerability assessment of intrusion recovery countermeasures in wireless sensor networks

2011 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC), 2011

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become a hot research topic in recent years and are consider... more Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become a hot research topic in recent years and are considered to be one of the building blocks of pervasive computing. Many diverse, missioncritical applications are deployed, including military, rescue, healthcare, factory floor, and smart homes. Security is a fundamental requirement in such sensitive applications in order to ensure their reliable and stable operation. However, security is a fairly difficult task to achieve. The open nature of the wireless communication, the unrestricted deployment and limitations of WSNs and the existence of a variety of attacks threaten the security of a sensor network. Currently, research efforts have mainly focused on developing prevention and intrusion detection mechanisms in WSNs. Intrusion recovery is also an important aspect of security provisioning that is not given the same attention. Researchers have proposed intrusion recovery protocols to restore the network's operation when an attack is detected. Their designs are mostly based on simplified threat models, making the intrusion recovery countermeasures vulnerable to advanced threat models. Although the network may recover its operation after an attack is detected, it does not mean that the threat is eliminated. For example, a persistent adversary can adapt his intrusion strategy to compromise the deployed recovery countermeasure. This research work evaluates the robustness and reliability of well-known recovery countermeasures in WSNs against persistent adversaries. Evaluation results have shown that existing intrusion recovery solutions are vulnerable and can be exploited under different attack strategies in order to compromise the applied recovery countermeasures, and thus the network. The vulnerability assessment is carried out using ns-2 simulations in an IEEE 802.15.4 network and within the AODV context. Observations derived from the assessment contribute towards future directions that can drive new designs of intrusion recovery protocols in WSNs.

Research paper thumbnail of Security in future mobile sensor networks issues and challenges

Existing security research in wireless sensor networks is based on specific assumptions about the... more Existing security research in wireless sensor networks is based on specific assumptions about the nodes and the network environment that are tied to specific usage scenarios. Typical scenarios consider sensor nodes that are immobile and have pre-defined communication patterns. We argue that node mobility is a realistic characteristic of sensor nodes that needs to be taken into consideration in future

Research paper thumbnail of e-healthcare Security Framework: DITIS Case Study

E-healthcare applications have demanding security needs due to the critical nature of the healthc... more E-healthcare applications have demanding security needs due to the critical nature of the healthcare environment. Before designing a security strategy, it is important to identify areas of focus that are vulnerable and need protection. A number of security issues should be addressed including: privacy, confidentiality, integrity, legal and ethical considerations.

Research paper thumbnail of Recovering from the selective forwarding attack in WSNs - enhancing the recovery benefits of blacklisting and rerouting using directional antennas

2014 International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), 2014

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) face a number of security challenges that can compromise their op... more Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) face a number of security challenges that can compromise their operation. A typical security attack that can be launched by an adversary, in order to affect the network's communication, is the selective forwarding attack. If compromisation occurs, it is essential to recover the network to a stable state. In the context of mission-critical WSNs the challenge is not just to recover from compromisation but it is vital to restore an enhanced network operation in order to support a reliable decisionmaking. Sensor nodes usually address the selective forwarding attack by deploying blacklisting and rerouting. These countermeasures have been proposed in the context of omni-directional networks. This research work investigates the utilization of directional antennas in WSNs in order to increase the recovery benefits gained by the blacklisting and rerouting countermeasures in terms of reliability, survivability and responsiveness, attributes that are vital for the operation of mission-critical applications.

Research paper thumbnail of Security evaluation methodology for intrusion recovery protocols in wireless sensor networks

Proceedings of the 15th ACM international conference on Modeling, analysis and simulation of wireless and mobile systems - MSWiM '12, 2012

Researchers have designed intrusion recovery protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) with the... more Researchers have designed intrusion recovery protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) with the aim of restoring compromised services and promoting a secure and reliable environment in WSNs. Evaluating the correctness and effectiveness of the intrusion recovery protocols is a challenging task. Often, researchers do not identify all the necessary aspects that need to be considered for the assessment of these protocols and also what attributes to measure. This leads to important aspects not been evaluated, therefore the comparison and evaluation of intrusion recovery protocols becomes hard to make. Comparing intrusion recovery protocols is even more challenging as researchers use different criteria to evaluate their protocol in terms of intrusion recovery aspects. This paper proposes an evaluation methodology to aid the evaluation and comparison of intrusion recovery protocols in WSNs. The methodology defines the intrusion recovery protocol aspects that should be evaluated using a number of evaluation criteria and guides researchers identifying the evaluation direction they should follow. The evaluation and comparison of existing intrusion recovery protocols is demonstrated using the proposed methodology.

Research paper thumbnail of Combating persistent adversaries in wireless sensor networks using directional antennas

2011 18th International Conference on Telecommunications, 2011

Security is an important property in applications offering services in mission-critical areas, su... more Security is an important property in applications offering services in mission-critical areas, such as in healthcare, military, transportation, etc. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) support the mission of these applications by monitoring the environment and reporting observations to appropriate authorities that are responsible for decision-making. Often, their operation can be at risk by adversaries that launch attacks against the WSN with the aim of compromising the reliability and availability of the network and the respective application. The outcome of an attack highly depends on the experience of the adversary and his capabilities in terms of programming skills, security knowledge and resources. From the network perspective, the challenge is to reliably recover to a normal operation as soon as the adversary is been detected and allow for packet delivery to destination. The challenge is even greater in the presence of adversaries that adapt their intrusion strategy to break the deployed recovery countermeasures and continue affecting the network. Proposed recovery countermeasures typically assume the use of omni-directional antennas, which cannot take advantage of antenna directivity in order to manipulate communication paths between WSN nodes for the purpose of (physically) bypassing an adversary. This paper presents an intrusion recovery protocol in WSNs that uses directional antennas to create controlled communication paths, thus routing, and enhancing the reliability, self-healingness and resilience of the network. The proposed protocol is implemented within the AODV context and evaluated using ns-2. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol to deliver packets to the destination in the presence of multiple persistent adversaries that deploy different types of simple to extended attacks.

Research paper thumbnail of A survey on secure multipath routing protocols in WSNs

Computer Networks, 2010

Routing protocols in wireless sensor networks (WSN) have been substantially investigated by resea... more Routing protocols in wireless sensor networks (WSN) have been substantially investigated by researches. Most state-of-the-art surveys have focused on reviewing the different routing schemes that have been proposed for WSN and classifying them based on the network"s type and protocol"s operation. Security aspects in routing protocols have not been given enough attention, since most of the routing protocols in WSNs have not been designed with security requirements in mind. However, taking into consideration that WSN applications need to support critical infrastructures (i.e. military, healthcare, environmental etc), security becomes an issue. And since these infrastructures are highly depended on the availability of resources, focus has especially been given to support a secure, resilient and reliable environment, with multipath routing being one of the added functionalities. The need for security in sensitive WSN application has lead researchers to design secure multipath routing protocols from the beginning or design security extensions for existing protocols. This paper surveys the current state-of-the-art of secure multipath routing protocols in WSNs, classifies the protocols in categories according to their security-related operational objectives, defines a new threat model in the routing procedure and identifies open research issues in the area.

Research paper thumbnail of Security in future mobile sensor networks issues and challenges

Existing security research in wireless sensor networks is based on specific assumptions about the... more Existing security research in wireless sensor networks is based on specific assumptions about the nodes and the network environment that are tied to specific usage scenarios. Typical scenarios consider sensor nodes that are immobile and have pre-defined communication patterns. We argue that node mobility is a realistic characteristic of sensor nodes that needs to be taken into consideration in future sensor networks. Mobility capabilities can address the objective challenges raised in mission-critical applications, such as in disaster relief, where their environment characteristics fluctuate over time. It is imperative to investigate the way security is affected in mobile sensor networks and identify the challenges that will need to be addressed in future security protocol design. We present our vision for future sensor networks through a realistic scenario and discuss security gaps that are present in existing research for next generation sensor networks.

Research paper thumbnail of Securing Mobile Healthcare Systems based on Information Classification: DITIS Case Study

Healthcare applications require special attention regarding security issues since healthcare is a... more Healthcare applications require special attention regarding security issues since healthcare is associated with mission critical services that are connected with the well being of life. Security raises special considerations when mobility is introduced in the healthcare environment. This research work proposes a security framework for mobile healthcare systems based on information classification into security levels. By categorizing the information used in mobile healthcare systems and linking it with the security objectives and security technologies, we aim in balancing the trade-off between security complexity and performance. Furthermore, this paper discusses a number of issues that are raised in the healthcare environment: privacy, confidentiality, integrity, legal and ethical considerations.

Research paper thumbnail of Vulnerability assessment of intrusion recovery countermeasures in wireless sensor networks

2011 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC), 2011

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become a hot research topic in recent years and are consider... more Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become a hot research topic in recent years and are considered to be one of the building blocks of pervasive computing. Many diverse, missioncritical applications are deployed, including military, rescue, healthcare, factory floor, and smart homes. Security is a fundamental requirement in such sensitive applications in order to ensure their reliable and stable operation. However, security is a fairly difficult task to achieve. The open nature of the wireless communication, the unrestricted deployment and limitations of WSNs and the existence of a variety of attacks threaten the security of a sensor network. Currently, research efforts have mainly focused on developing prevention and intrusion detection mechanisms in WSNs. Intrusion recovery is also an important aspect of security provisioning that is not given the same attention. Researchers have proposed intrusion recovery protocols to restore the network's operation when an attack is detected. Their designs are mostly based on simplified threat models, making the intrusion recovery countermeasures vulnerable to advanced threat models. Although the network may recover its operation after an attack is detected, it does not mean that the threat is eliminated. For example, a persistent adversary can adapt his intrusion strategy to compromise the deployed recovery countermeasure. This research work evaluates the robustness and reliability of well-known recovery countermeasures in WSNs against persistent adversaries. Evaluation results have shown that existing intrusion recovery solutions are vulnerable and can be exploited under different attack strategies in order to compromise the applied recovery countermeasures, and thus the network. The vulnerability assessment is carried out using ns-2 simulations in an IEEE 802.15.4 network and within the AODV context. Observations derived from the assessment contribute towards future directions that can drive new designs of intrusion recovery protocols in WSNs.