Secure Trust Management in Distributed Computing Systems

Modeling and computing trust in distributed computing systems like ad-hoc networks is very much challenging. Particularly in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), where the network is formed and self-organized by relying on the almost strangers for reliable and normal operation, it is important to compute the trustworthiness of individual nodes in distributed manner. In order to find the trustworthiness of individual nodes, we propose a model that takes into consideration of various malicious behaviors of the nodes. The proposed trust and reputation model attempts to find answers to the inadequacy of the traditional authorization mechanisms to secure distributed systems. Our scheme explores the behavioral pattern of the malicious nodes or the attackers and quantifies those patterns to realize the secure trust management modeling. The proposed scheme presents secure trust and reputation modeling against selfish nodes, against malicious accuser nodes and attempts for conflict resolution. Efficacy of this model is shown through simulation results.