A review on security and privacy issues in wireless sensor networks

Wireless network sensors consist of a large number of pocket-sized sensors deployed in autonomous manner in the area under surveillance. The sensor networks are used in sensitive, unattended and remote environment. They have a wide range of applications and are used in almost every field like agriculture, industry, public safety and health. They are used to gain knowledge about various parameters like temperature, vibrations, motion etc. in the area. The cost of establishment and maintenance of these networks is reasonable. These sensor networks face a lot of challenges owing to the use of wireless medium for communication which is prone to various types of attacks. There are various issues like energy exhaustion, memory and storage shortage, security attacks. It is very important to safeguard the network for reliable communication. Attacks result in loss of information and there is a cutback in number of bits transferred per second that is the throughput reduces. This paper discusses the security requirements, security attacks and countermeasures against the attacks.