Providing Source and Sink Location Privacy against a Global Eavesdropper in Sensor Networks

Abstract

Many of the protocols used to provide sensor network security, provide confidentiality for the content of the messages but contextual information usually remains exposed. Such contextual information can be misused by an adversary to derive sensitive information such as the locations of monitored objects and data sinks in the field. Attacks on these components can significantly undermine any network application. Existing techniques protect the leakage of location information from a limited adversary who can only observe network traffic in a small region. However, a stronger adversary, the global eavesdropper, is realistic and can overthrow these existing techniques.