A secure and efficient data aggregation scheme for wireless sensor networks

In resource-constrained wireless sensor networks, data aggregation is a key technique for power-efficient information acquisition. Consequently, the intermediate sensor nodes performing aggregation tasks known as aggregators are valuable and attractive targets for attackers. We address the problem of defending against malicious adversaries who intend to stealthily change some aggregates to entice the base station to accept deceiving results. A secure and efficient aggregation scheme is proposed, in which the base station composes a secret configuration matrix and each sensor node is pre-loaded with a limited part of the matrix known as a secret share containing certain local instructions. For each aggregation session, a set of scrambled aggregates are constructed in such a manner that there exists a secret yet unrevealed relationship between these values. The base station, aware of the relationship derived from the configuration matrix, can both extract the intended result from the received aggregates and verify it on its own. Our scheme avoids the interactive verification phase which existent protocols typically take to ensure the aggregation integrity, and thus observably lowers the communication overhead. The proposed scheme also features protection of data confidentiality, and analysis shows that it can detect stealthy alteration attacks with a significant probability. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.