Co-design of sensor networking technology and privacy policy
Stephen B. Wicker, Sameer Pai · 2008
Sensor networks are infrastructure-less, possibly multi-hop wireless networks where every mote (networked device) can be either a host or a router, forwarding packets to other motes in the network. These networks usually consist of numerous sensor-equipped motes which are used for gathering data related to physical phenomena. Sensor networks are becoming widely integrated into the critical, physical as well as personal infrastructures. In this dissertation, we address the problem of enhancing privacy protections for individuals exposed to these networks. In this dissertation, we define the human value of privacy and describe its importance in the sensor networking domain. Next, we describe sensor network policies and protocols to preserve network stakeholder privacy. The goal of privacy is the broken into two preliminary objectives: the design of a robust sensor network trust protocol and the design and analysis of network confidentiality-preserving policies and protocols. We first present what problems could arise if these two objectives are not met and then discuss solutions. We discuss privacy problems associated with mote-class, active, insider attackers; the lack of content confidentiality; and the lack of transactional confidentiality in sensor networks. We then examine the fundamental design issues involved with creating robust sensor network trust protocols, describe and analyze a new protocol that we created, and analyze equilibrium-induced best strategies in a game theoretic model of such types of protocols. We show how trust protocols mitigate the problems created by insider attackers. Next, we examine the design of solutions to enhance content confidentiality in the context of high-fidelity camera sensor networks. We also discuss transactional confidentiality and the complexity of designing solutions to protect the transactions in a sensor network. We conclude using a case study involving our deployment of a sensor network testbed in a public space. We elaborate on our testbed architecture design and our privacy considerations.