Privacy-Preserving Querying in Sensor Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cryptographic-based privacy-preserving query mechanism for wireless sensor networks that protects sensor data and user query privacy during on-demand data access.

Contribution

It proposes a novel cryptographic approach to secure sensor data and query privacy, addressing both data security and privacy leakage issues in large-scale WSNs.

Findings

Prevents unauthorized access to sensor readings

Minimizes leakage of user query patterns

Uses standard cryptographic techniques for privacy protection

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) provide sensing and monitoring services by means of many tiny autonomous devices equipped with wireless radio transceivers. As WSNs are deployed on a large-scale and/or on long-term basis, not only traditional security but also privacy issues must be taken into account. Furthermore, when network operators offer on-demand access to sensor measurements to their clients, query mechanisms should ideally leak neither client interests nor query patterns. In this paper, we present a privacy-preserving WSN query mechanism that uses standard cryptographic techniques. Besides preventing unauthorized entities from accessing sensor readings, it minimizes leakage of (potentially sensitive) information about users' query targets and patterns.