Set Difference Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks

We show that existing proposed mechanisms for preserving the privacy of reported data values in wireless sensor networks are vulnerable against a simple and practical form of attack: the set difference attack. These attacks are particularly effective where a number of separate applications are running in a given network, but are not limited to this case. We demonstrate the feasibility of these attacks and assert that they cannot, in general, be avoided whilst maintaining absolute accuracy of sensed data. As an implication of this, we suggest a mechanism based on perturbation of sensor results whereby these attacks can be partially mitigated.

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