Localized Identification of Malicious Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

Securing a wireless sensor network against the various attacks with minimal energy consumption is a challenging task because the nodes usually have limited energy source, are distributed in harsh environments and communicate over standard radio channels. Adding malicious nodes to an existing wireless sensor network is one of the common types of attacks. The malicious nodes can reduce the reliability of a network by flooding heavy traffic, sending fake data or counterfeiting the paths. This study proposes a new localized algorithm for identifying the malicious nodes in WSNs where the existing verified nodes detect the malicious nodes using neighborhood information and signature of messages. The testbed experiments and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is a feasible and efficient approach for detecting the malicious nodes.