Other Research Areas

Multimedia Systems and Sensor Networks

Multimedia systems involve the acquisition, format conversion, storage, transmission, processing and consumption of various forms of information. These forms typically involve text, audio, still images, animation, video and other forms of digital media. Multimedia systems are found in a variety of applications including entertainment and fine arts, journalism, engineering and medicine in order to effectively display and communication complex concepts. They are also emerging in advanced surveillance and healthcare (e.g., assisted living) applications.

Sensor networks proposed for surveillance, safety, and monitoring applications, are a class of information system that aims to change the way in which people observe and interact with their environment. Traditionally, sensor networks have been defined as being comprised of low-cost unattended groups of densely placed sensor nodes’ that observe, communicate (often using wireless means), and coordinate to collectively achieve high-level inference tasks. These networks ideally have the following characteristics; they are:

distributed, in order to improve the performance and geographical range of sensing functions,
data-centric, in which network processing is dependent on the sensed data instead of the particular identity of the node at which it was observed,
collaborative, making use of the coordination of localized algorithms to achieve a global task with better scalability,
redundant, using distributed densely deployed sensor nodes to obtain more accurate and complete readings of observed events,
autonomous, for adaptability to change in network topology, and fault-tolerance without requiring servicing over long periods of time,
application-specific, requiring in-network processing, such as data aggregation (a.k.a. fusion), to produce meaningful data about the observation area,
hierarchical, through the localized clustering of sensor nodes into “sub-networks” to improve network scalability, and
resource-constrained, necessitating the sparing use of communication bandwidth, memory and computation to reduce exhaustion of the often portable power source, which is one of the biggest design challenges in existing literature.

When the sensor nodes collect diverse types of information such as temperature, humidity, acoustic and visual data simultaenously, they are termed “multimodal sensors.” Multiple types of sensing can occur within the same node through the use of distinct sensing technologies or across different nodes each having a single, but distinct sensor type. Multimodal sensors that collect multimedia information such as digital images, video and audio, form a multimedia sensor network. The proliferation of advanced surveillance systems and modern personal devices (cell phones, tablets) with multimedia acquisition capability has popularized research in multimedia sensor networks.

Research Focus

Our work in multimedia sensor networks has four main thrusts. The first is on security and privacy-enhanced architectures. Game and graph-theoretical formulations are employed to understand design principles for multimedia sensor network systems. Our second thrust involves identifying network vulnerabilities and proposing security mechanisms for directional sensor networks capable of carrying multimedia information. Here we determine fundamental trade-offs between system connectivity and security for directional sensor networks based on random scaled sector graphical models. Third, we develop lightweight and distributed multimedia enciphering approaches suitable for sensor networks. Most recently we have identified characteristics of multimedia sensor systems that can promote and discourage steganography.

Related Publications

Julien Jainsky; Deepa Kundur

Towards Preventative Steganalysis in Wireless Visual Sensor Networks Journal Article

International Journal on Multimedia Technology, 2 (3), pp. 55-61, 2013.

BibTeX | Links:

Julien Sebastien Jainsky

Defenses Against Covert-Communications in Multimedia and Sensor Networks PhD Thesis

Texas A&M University, 2012.

Abstract | BibTeX

@phdthesis{JaiPhDThesis12,
title = {Defenses Against Covert-Communications in Multimedia and Sensor Networks},
author = {Julien Sebastien Jainsky},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-12-01},
address = {College Station, TX},
school = {Texas A&M University},
abstract = {Steganography and covert-communications represent a great and real threat today more than ever due to the evolution of modern communications. This doctoral work proposes defenses against such covert-communication techniques in two threatening but underdeveloped domains. Indeed, this work focuses on the novel problem of visual sensor network steganalysis but also proposes one of the first solutions against video steganography. The first part of the thesis looks at covert-communications in videos. The contribution of this study resides in the combination of image processing using motion vector interpolation and non-traditional detection theory to obtain better results in identifying the presence of embedded messages in videos compared to what existing still-image steganalytic solutions would offer. The proposed algorithm called MoViSteg utilizes the specifics of video, as a whole and not as a series of images, to decide on the occurrence of steganography. Contrary to other solutions, MoViSteg is a video-specific algorithm, and not a repetitive still-image steganalysis, and allows for detection of embedding in partially corrupted sequences.

This thesis also lays the foundation for the novel study of visual sensor network steganalysis. We develop three different steganalytic solutions to the problem of covert communications in visual sensor networks. Because of the inadequacy of the existing steganalytic solutions present in the current research literature, we introduce the novel concept of preventative steganalysis, which aims at discouraging potential steganographic attacks. We propose a set of solutions with active and passive warden scenarii using the material made available by the network. To quantify the efficiency of
the preventative steganalysis, a new measure for evaluating the risk of steganography is proposed: the embedding potential which relies on the uncertainty of the image’s pixel values prone to corruption.},
type = {Ph.D. Thesis},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}

J.S. Jainsky; D. Kundur

“Visual Sensor Network Processing and Preventative Steganalysis," in Visual Information Processing in Wireless Sensor Networks Book Chapter

L.-M. Ang; K.P. Seng (Ed.): pp. 340-357, IGI Global, 2011, ISBN: 9781613501535.

BibTeX | Links:

G. Dominguez-Conde; D. Kundur

Improving the Visual Performance of S/DISCUS Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), pp. 1-6, Barcelona, Spain, 2011.

BibTeX | Links:

U. N. Okorafor; D. Kundur

Security-Aware Routing and Localization for a Directional Mission Critical Network Journal Article

IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 28 (5), pp. 664-676, 2010.

BibTeX | Links:

U. N. Okorafor; D. Kundur

On the Relevance of Node Isolation to the K-Connectivity of Wireless Optical Sensor Networks Journal Article

IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 8 (10), pp. 1427-1440, 2009.

BibTeX | Links:

D. Kundur

Directional Link Networks: Enabling Technologies for Multimedia Sensor Networks Journal Article

COMSOC MMTC E-Letter, 4 (5), 2009.

BibTeX | Links:

A. Czarlinska; D. Kundur

Wireless Image Sensor Networks: Event Acquisition in Attack-Prone and Uncertain Environments Journal Article

Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing, 20 (2), pp. 135-164, 2009.

BibTeX | Links:

U. N. Okorafor; D. Kundur

"Security Aware Routing in Hierarchical Optical Sensor Networks" in From Problem to Solution: Wireless Sensor Networks Book Chapter

Z. Jiang; Y. Pan (Ed.): Chapter 5, pp. 93-106, Nova Science Publishers, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-60456-457-0.

BibTeX | Links:

M. Merabti; Z. Liu; H.H. Yu; D. Kundur

Advances in Peer-to_Peer Content Search Journal Article

Journal of Signal Processing Systems, 59 (3), pp. 309-318, 2009.

BibTeX | Links:

S. Shankar; D. Kundur; A. Sprintson

Enhanced Availability in Randomly Deployed Wireless Sensor Networks via Hybrid Uni/Omni-Directional Antennas Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), San Diego, California, 2008.

BibTeX | Links:

A. Czarlinska; W. Luh; D. Kundur

On Privacy and Security in Distributed Visual Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), pp. 1692-1695, 2008.

BibTeX | Links:

Unoma Ndili Okorafor

Secure Integrated Routing and Localization in Wireless Optical Sensor Networks PhD Thesis

Texas A&M University, 2008.

Abstract | BibTeX

@phdthesis{OkoPhDThesis08,
title = {Secure Integrated Routing and Localization in Wireless Optical Sensor Networks},
author = {Unoma Ndili Okorafor},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-08-31},
address = {College Station, Texas},
school = {Texas A&M University},
abstract = {Wireless ad hoc and sensor networks are envisioned to be self-organizing and autonomous networks, that may be randomly deployed where no fixed infrastructure is either feasible or cost-effective. The successful commercialization of such networks depends on the feasible implementation of network services to support security-aware applications.

Recently, free space optical (FSO) communication has emerged as a viable technology for broadband distributed wireless optical sensor network (WOSN) applications. The challenge of employing FSO include its susceptibility to adverse weather conditions and the line of sight requirement between two communicating nodes. In addition, it is necessary to consider security at the initial design phase of any network and routing protocol. This dissertation addresses the feasibility of randomly deployed WOSNs employing broad beam FSO with regard to the network layer, in which two important problems are specifically investigated.

First, we address the parameter assignment problem which considers the relationship amongst the physical layer parameters of node density, transmission radius and beam divergence of the FSO signal in order to yield probabilistic guarantees on network connectivity. We analyze the node isolation property of WOSNs, and its relation to the connectivity of the network. Theoretical analysis and experimental investigation were conducted to assess the effects of hierarchical clustering as well as fading due to atmospheric turbulence on connectivity, thereby demonstrating the design choices necessary to make the random deployment of the WOSN feasible.

Second, we propose a novel light-weight circuit-based, secure and integrated routing and localization paradigm within the WOSN, that leverages the resources of the base station. Our scheme exploits the hierarchical cluster-based organization of the network, and the directionality of links to deliver enhanced security performance including per hop and broadcast authentication, confidentiality, integrity and freshness of routing signals. We perform security and attack analysis and synthesis to characterize the protocol’s performance, compared to existing schemes, and demonstrate its superior performance for WOSNs.

Through the investigation of this dissertation, we demonstrate the fundamental tradeoff between security and connectivity in WOSNs, and illustrate how the transmission radius may be used as a high sensitivity tuning parameter to balance there two metrics of network performance. We also present WOSNs as a field of study that opens up several directions for novel research, and encompasses problems such as connectivity analysis, secure routing and localization, intrusion detection, topology control, secure data aggregation and novel attack scenarios.},
type = {Ph.D. Thesis},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}

Wireless ad hoc and sensor networks are envisioned to be self-organizing and autonomous networks, that may be randomly deployed where no fixed infrastructure is either feasible or cost-effective. The successful commercialization of such networks depends on the feasible implementation of network services to support security-aware applications.

Recently, free space optical (FSO) communication has emerged as a viable technology for broadband distributed wireless optical sensor network (WOSN) applications. The challenge of employing FSO include its susceptibility to adverse weather conditions and the line of sight requirement between two communicating nodes. In addition, it is necessary to consider security at the initial design phase of any network and routing protocol. This dissertation addresses the feasibility of randomly deployed WOSNs employing broad beam FSO with regard to the network layer, in which two important problems are specifically investigated.

First, we address the parameter assignment problem which considers the relationship amongst the physical layer parameters of node density, transmission radius and beam divergence of the FSO signal in order to yield probabilistic guarantees on network connectivity. We analyze the node isolation property of WOSNs, and its relation to the connectivity of the network. Theoretical analysis and experimental investigation were conducted to assess the effects of hierarchical clustering as well as fading due to atmospheric turbulence on connectivity, thereby demonstrating the design choices necessary to make the random deployment of the WOSN feasible.

Second, we propose a novel light-weight circuit-based, secure and integrated routing and localization paradigm within the WOSN, that leverages the resources of the base station. Our scheme exploits the hierarchical cluster-based organization of the network, and the directionality of links to deliver enhanced security performance including per hop and broadcast authentication, confidentiality, integrity and freshness of routing signals. We perform security and attack analysis and synthesis to characterize the protocol’s performance, compared to existing schemes, and demonstrate its superior performance for WOSNs.

Through the investigation of this dissertation, we demonstrate the fundamental tradeoff between security and connectivity in WOSNs, and illustrate how the transmission radius may be used as a high sensitivity tuning parameter to balance there two metrics of network performance. We also present WOSNs as a field of study that opens up several directions for novel research, and encompasses problems such as connectivity analysis, secure routing and localization, intrusion detection, topology control, secure data aggregation and novel attack scenarios.

Alexandra Czarlinska

Stealthy Attacks and Defense Strategies in Competing Sensor Networks PhD Thesis

Texas A&M University, 2008.

Abstract | BibTeX

@phdthesis{CzaPhDThesis08,
title = {Stealthy Attacks and Defense Strategies in Competing Sensor Networks},
author = {Alexandra Czarlinska},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-08-01},
address = {College Station, TX},
school = {Texas A&M University},
abstract = {The fundamental objective of sensor networks underpinning a variety of applications is the collection of reliable information from the surrounding environment. The correctness of the collected data is especially important in applications involving societal welfare and safety, in which the acquired information may be utilized by end-users for decision-making. The distributed nature of sensor networks and their deployment in unattended and potentially hostile environments, however, renders this collection task challenging for both scalar and visual data.

In this work we propose and address the twin problem of carrying out and defending against a stealthy attack on the information gathered by a sensor network at the physical sensing layer as perpetrated by a competing hostile network. A stealthy attack in this context is an intelligent attempt to disinform a sensor network in a manner that mitigates attack discovery. In comparison with previous sensor network security studies, we explicitly model the attack scenario as an active competition between two networks where difficulties arise from the pervasive nature of the attack, the possibility of tampering during data acquisition prior to encryption, and the lack of prior knowledge regarding the characteristics of the attack

We examine the problem from the perspective of both the hostile and the legitimate network. The interaction between the networks is modeled as a game where a stealth utility is derived and shown to be consistent for both players in the case of stealthy direct attacks and stealthy cross attacks. Based on the stealth utility, the optimal attack and defense strategies are obtained for each network. For the legitimate network, minimization of the attacker’s stealth results in the possibility of attack detection through established paradigms and the ability to mitigate the power of the attack. For the hostile network, maximization of the stealth utility translates into the optimal attack avoidance. This attack avoidance does not require active communication among the hostile nodes but rather relies on a level of coordination which we quantify. We demonstrate the significance and effectiveness of the solution for sensor networks acquiring scalar and multidimensional data such as surveillance sequences and relate the results to existing image sensor networks. Finally we discuss the implications of these results for achieving secure event acquisition in unattended environments.},
type = {Ph.D. Thesis},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {phdthesis}
}

The fundamental objective of sensor networks underpinning a variety of applications is the collection of reliable information from the surrounding environment. The correctness of the collected data is especially important in applications involving societal welfare and safety, in which the acquired information may be utilized by end-users for decision-making. The distributed nature of sensor networks and their deployment in unattended and potentially hostile environments, however, renders this collection task challenging for both scalar and visual data.

In this work we propose and address the twin problem of carrying out and defending against a stealthy attack on the information gathered by a sensor network at the physical sensing layer as perpetrated by a competing hostile network. A stealthy attack in this context is an intelligent attempt to disinform a sensor network in a manner that mitigates attack discovery. In comparison with previous sensor network security studies, we explicitly model the attack scenario as an active competition between two networks where difficulties arise from the pervasive nature of the attack, the possibility of tampering during data acquisition prior to encryption, and the lack of prior knowledge regarding the characteristics of the attack

We examine the problem from the perspective of both the hostile and the legitimate network. The interaction between the networks is modeled as a game where a stealth utility is derived and shown to be consistent for both players in the case of stealthy direct attacks and stealthy cross attacks. Based on the stealth utility, the optimal attack and defense strategies are obtained for each network. For the legitimate network, minimization of the attacker’s stealth results in the possibility of attack detection through established paradigms and the ability to mitigate the power of the attack. For the hostile network, maximization of the stealth utility translates into the optimal attack avoidance. This attack avoidance does not require active communication among the hostile nodes but rather relies on a level of coordination which we quantify. We demonstrate the significance and effectiveness of the solution for sensor networks acquiring scalar and multidimensional data such as surveillance sequences and relate the results to existing image sensor networks. Finally we discuss the implications of these results for achieving secure event acquisition in unattended environments.

A. Czarlinska; D. Kundur

Reliable Event-Detection in Wireless Visual Sensor Networks through Scalar Collaboration and Game Theoretic Consideration Journal Article

IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 10 (5), pp. 675-690, 2008.

BibTeX | Links:

Sonu Shankar

Parameter Assignment for Improved Connectivity and Security in Randomly Deployed Wireless Sensor Networks via Hybrid Omni/Uni-Directional Antennas

2008.

Abstract | BibTeX

A. Czarlinska; W. Luh; D. Kundur

G-E-M Sensor Networks for Mission Critical Surveillance in Hostile Environments Sensor Networks for Mission Critical Surveillance in Hostile Environments Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE INFOCOM Workshop on Mission Critical Networks, pp. 1-6, Phoenix, Arizona, 2008.

BibTeX | Links:

S. Shankar; D. Kundur

Towards Improved Connectivity with Hybrid Uni/Omni-Directional Antennas in Wireless Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE INFOCOM Workshops, pp. 1-4, Phoenix, Arizona, 2008.

BibTeX | Links:

U. N. Okorafor; D. Kundur

A Secure Integrated Routing and Localization Scheme for Broadband Mission Critical Networks Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE INFOCOM Workshop on Mission Critical Networks, pp. 1-6, Phoenix, Arizona, 2008, (Best paper award finalist.).

BibTeX | Links:

A. Czarlinska; D. Kundur

Coordination and Selfishness in Attacks on Visual Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE Wireless Communications & Networking Conference (WCNC), pp. 2391-2396, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2008.

BibTeX | Links:

D. Kundur; W. Luh; U. N. Okorafor; T. Zourntos

Security and Privacy for Distributed Multimedia Sensor Networks Journal Article

Proceedings of the IEEE Special Issue on Recent Advances in Distributed Multimedia Communications, 96 (1), pp. 112-130, 2008.

BibTeX | Links:

A. Czarlinska; D. Kundur

Reliable Scalar-Visual Event-Detection in Wireless Visual Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC) Special Session on Image/Video Processing & Wireless Sensor Networks, pp. 660-664, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2008.

BibTeX | Links:

A. Czarlinska; D. Kundur

Event-Driven Visual Sensor Networks: Issues in Reliability Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), pp. 1-6, Copper Mountain Resort, 2008.

BibTeX | Links:

A. Czarlinska; W. Luh; D. Kundur

Attacks on Sensing in Hostile Sensor-Actuator Environments Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), pp. 1001-1005, Washington, DC, 2007.

BibTeX | Links:

A. Czarlinska; D. Kundur

Towards Characterizing the Effectiveness of Random Mobility Against Actuation Attacks Journal Article

Journal of Computer Communications Special Issue on Sensor and Actuator Networks, 30 (13), pp. 2546-2558, 2007.

BibTeX | Links:

W. Luh; D. Kundur

Distributed Keyless Security for Correlated Data with Applications in Visual Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. ACM Multimedia and Security (MMSec) Workshop, pp. 75-86, Dallas, Texas, 2007.

BibTeX | Links:

A. Czarlinska; D. Kundur

Attack vs. Failure Detection in Event-Driven Wireless Visual Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. ACM Multimedia and Security (MMSec) Workshop, pp. 215-220, Dallas, Texas, 2007.

BibTeX | Links:

D. Kundur; Z. Liu; M. Merabti; H.H. Yu

Advances in Peer-to-Peer Content Search Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Mulitmedia and Expo (ICME), pp. 404-407, Beijing, China, 2007.

BibTeX | Links:

D. Kundur; U. N. Okorafor

On the Connectivity of Hierarchical Directional Optical Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE Wireless Communications & Networking Conference (WCNC), pp. 11-15, Hong Kong, 2007.

BibTeX | Links:

U. N. Okorafor; D. Kundur

On Node Isolation in Directional Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys), pp. 433-434, Syndney, Australia, 2007.

BibTeX | Links:

D. Kundur; C.-Y. Lin; C.-S. Lu

Visual Sensor Networks Journal Article

EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, 2007 , pp. Article ID 21515, 3 pages, 2007.

BibTeX | Links:

W. Luh; D. Kundur; T. Zourntos

A Novel Distributed Privacy Paradigm for Visual Sensor Networks Based on Sharing Dynamical Systems Journal Article

EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing Signal Processing, 2007 (Article ID 21646), pp. 17 pages, 2007.

BibTeX | Links:

W. Luh; D. Kundur

"Multimedia Fingerprinting, " in Encyclopedia of Multimedia Book Chapter

B. Furht (Ed.): Springer, 2006, ISBN: 978-0-387-74724-8.

BibTeX | Links:

D. Kundur; W. Luh

"Multimedia Sensor Networks," in Encyclopedia of Multimedia Book Chapter

B. Furht (Ed.): Springer, 2006, ISBN: 978-0-387-74724-8.

BibTeX | Links:

D. Kundur; W. Luh; U. N. Okorafor

HoLiSTiC: Heterogeneous Lightweight Sensornets for Trusted Visual Computing Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing (IIH-MSP), pp. 267-270, Pasadenia, California, 2006.

BibTeX | Links:

U. N. Okorafor; D. Kundur

OPSENET: A Security Enabled Routing Scheme for a System of Optical Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. International Conference on Broadband Communications, Networks, and Systems (BROADNETS), pp. 1-10, San Jose, California, 2006.

BibTeX | Links:

U. N. Okorafor; K. Marshall; D. Kundur

Security and Energy Considerations for Routing in Hierarchical Optical Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Mobile Adhoc and Sensor Systems (MASS), pp. 888-893, Vancouver, Canada, 2006.

BibTeX | Links:

Z. Liu; H.H. Yu; D. Kundur; M. Merabti

On Peer-to-Peer Multimedia Content Access and Distribution Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Mulitmedia and Expo (ICME), pp. 557-560, Toronto, Canada, 2006.

BibTeX | Links:

Anli Chen

Encrypted Media Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks

2006.

Abstract | BibTeX

@masterthesis{CheMERep08,
title = {Encrypted Media Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks},
author = {Anli Chen},
year = {2006},
date = {2006-05-09},
address = {College Station, TX},
school = {Texas A&M University},
abstract = {In historical investigation, sensors devices typically measure simple things such as humility, temperature, or pressure. This results in a fairly limited amount of data generated, even over thousands of sensors. Now, if we look ten years into the future when video capture devices will most likely be small and inexpensive, the ability to create video-based sensor networks will be possible. Previous literature has demonstrated the necessity of in-network data aggregation in order to minimize the volume of messages exchanged in the hierarchical wireless sensor networks. Nevertheless, with the severe power constraints, sensor networks are much more vulnerable to all those threats. A portion of the sensor devices may be physically captured by attackers, or even worse, the crucial elements like cluster heads and aggregators may also stimulate malicious intrusion. Sensor networks are more vulnerable than traditional communication and computation systems to security threats because of their severe power constraints. Furthermore, since crucial elements such as cluster heads and aggregators in sensor networks can often contain information of higher security level, they are more attractive to the attackers and may stimulate more malicious intrusion. Our primary objective is to develop a sufficiently secure, efficient, adaptive, and resilient mechanism for media aggregation within wireless sensor networks. After substantial investigation, we assert that one effective way to balance security with resource limitations for secure aggregation is to employ aggregation functions with the homomorphic attribute. This essentially means that aggregation can occur directly on ciphertext (i.e. encrypted media) opposed to plaintext (i.e. raw unencrypted data). We propose to adopt Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC), Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) techniques to boost secure aggregation. We tailor the three methods into wireless sensor network scenario so that encrypted media can be securely aggregated. The result of this study allows the network administrator to adaptively select the most appropriate securing method that assures adequate protection according to their practical needs and environmental condition.},
type = {M.E. Report},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {masterthesis}
}

In historical investigation, sensors devices typically measure simple things such as humility, temperature, or pressure. This results in a fairly limited amount of data generated, even over thousands of sensors. Now, if we look ten years into the future when video capture devices will most likely be small and inexpensive, the ability to create video-based sensor networks will be possible. Previous literature has demonstrated the necessity of in-network data aggregation in order to minimize the volume of messages exchanged in the hierarchical wireless sensor networks. Nevertheless, with the severe power constraints, sensor networks are much more vulnerable to all those threats. A portion of the sensor devices may be physically captured by attackers, or even worse, the crucial elements like cluster heads and aggregators may also stimulate malicious intrusion. Sensor networks are more vulnerable than traditional communication and computation systems to security threats because of their severe power constraints. Furthermore, since crucial elements such as cluster heads and aggregators in sensor networks can often contain information of higher security level, they are more attractive to the attackers and may stimulate more malicious intrusion. Our primary objective is to develop a sufficiently secure, efficient, adaptive, and resilient mechanism for media aggregation within wireless sensor networks. After substantial investigation, we assert that one effective way to balance security with resource limitations for secure aggregation is to employ aggregation functions with the homomorphic attribute. This essentially means that aggregation can occur directly on ciphertext (i.e. encrypted media) opposed to plaintext (i.e. raw unencrypted data). We propose to adopt Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC), Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) techniques to boost secure aggregation. We tailor the three methods into wireless sensor network scenario so that encrypted media can be securely aggregated. The result of this study allows the network administrator to adaptively select the most appropriate securing method that assures adequate protection according to their practical needs and environmental condition.

W. Luh; D. Kundur

Distributed Privacy for Visual Sensor Networks via Markov Shares Inproceedings

Proc. 2nd IEEE Workshop on Dependability and Security in Sensor Networks and Systems (DSSNS), pp. 23-34, Columbia, Maryland, 2006.

BibTeX | Links:

A. Czarlinska; D. Kundur

Distributed Actuation Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks: Implications and Countermeasures Inproceedings

Proc. 2nd IEEE Workshop on Dependability and Security in Sensor Networks and Systems (DSSNS), pp. 3-12, Columbia, Maryland, 2006.

BibTeX | Links:

U. N. Okorafor; D. Kundur

Efficient Routing Protocols for a Free Space Optical Sensor Network Inproceedings

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS), pp. 251-258, Washington, DC, 2005.

BibTeX | Links:

W. Luh; D. Kundur

“Digital Media Fingerprinting: Techniques and Trends,” in Multimedia Security Handbook Book Chapter

B. Furht; D. Kirovski (Ed.): pp. 577-603, CRC Press, 2004, ISBN: 9780849327735.

BibTeX | Links:

D. Kundur; H.H. Yu; C.-Y. Lin

“Security and Digital Rights Management for Mobile Content,” in Content Delivery in the Mobile Internet Book Chapter

T. Wu; S. Dixit (Ed.): Chapter Security and Digital Rights Management f, pp. 371-407, John Wiley & Sons, 2004, ISBN: 978-0-471-46618-5.

BibTeX | Links:

D. Kundur; T. Zourntos; N. Mathai

Lightweight Security Principles for Distributed Multimedia-Based Sensor Networks Inproceedings

Proc. Annual Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers, pp. 368-372, Pacific Grove, California, 2004.

BibTeX | Links: