Denial of Service Attacks
From Capsil Wiki
Defending against denial-of-service attack DoS, which aim to destroy network functionality rather than subverting it or using the sensed information, is extremely difficult. DoS attacks can occur at the physical layer—for example, via radio jamming. They can also involve malicious transmissions into the network to interfere with sensor network protocols or physically destroy central network nodes. Attackers can induce battery exhaustion in sensor nodes for example, by sending a sustained series of useless communications to the targeted nodes or by the creation of routing loops that will exhaust all nodes in the network. Potential defenses against denial-ofservice attacks include techniques such as spread spectrum communication and frequency- hopping (to counteract jamming attacks). Proper authentication can prevent injected messages from being accepted by the network. However, the protocols involved must be efficient so that they themselves do not become targets for an energy exhaustion attack. For example, using signatures based on asymmetric cryptography can provide message authentication. However, the creation and verification of asymmetric signatures are highly computationally intensive, and attackers that can induce a large number of these operations can mount an effective energy-exhaustion attack.
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