Making Security Useable in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) will increasingly be deployed to solve real-world problems in the near future. Therefore, securing the data transferred in these networks is imperative to allow for safe operation as well as to gain widespread users’ acceptance. A sound key setup is the basis for any security and although research in key management is a lively field of study, much of this research is not easily applicable to real-world settings. It rather requires significant domain expertise from the developers. To alleviate this task, we propose a concept that simplifies the initial key setup and can easily be integrated into the WSN application development process. We show which application properties define the choice of key material in order to enable further security measures. Furthermore, we present how this concept has been implemented as a plug-in of a WSN middleware synthesis tool.