Wireless Networks and Security

Abstract

Wireless communications will be fundamental in future Machine-to- Machine (M2M) pervasive environments where new applications are expected to employ sensing and actuating devices that are able to autonomously communicate without human intervention. M2M devices using wireless communications are expected to represent fundamental components of a future Internet where applications will allow users to transparently interact with its physical surroundings. The heterogeneity of the characteristics envisioned for M2M devices and applications calls for new approaches regarding how devices communicate wirelessly at the various protocol layers and how security should be designed for such communications. As such devices and communications are expected to support security-critical applications, the security of M2M wireless communications is particularly important. Since most M2M wireless devices will be seriously constrained in terms of computational capability and energy, security for M2M wireless communications must consider such limitations. This implies that existing security mechanisms may not be appropriate for M2M communications. The particular characteristics and the heterogeneity of the characteristics of M2M devices is currently motivating the design of a plethora of new communication protocols at the various communication layers. As M2M is a fundamentally recent research area, we currently verify a lack of research contributions that are clearly able to identify the main issues and approaches in targeting security on M2M environments. In this chapter we analyze security for wireless communications considering also protocols in the process of standardization, as such technologies are likely to contribute to future standard communications architecture for wireless M2M systems. We start by addressing the security issues and vulnerabilities related with the usage of wireless M2M communication technologies on applications in various application environments. Such threats to wireless communications are present not only due to the usage of wireless communication in security-threatening environments but also to the inherent constraints of M2M sensing devices. We also discuss ways for strengthening security for wireless communications at the various layers of the communications stack. We also verify that most of the current proposals for M2M wireless communications technologies lack fundamental security assurances and discuss how this major challenge may be targeted by research and standardization work. The goal of this chapter is twofold, as on the one side we perform a survey on the main security issues of the usage of currently available M2M wireless communication technologies and also discuss the main approaches to introduce security for such communications, while on the other side we discuss future approaches to security in wireless M2M environments. Various characteristics of such environments will pose challenges and motivate new approaches for security. In fact, many aspects of M2M applications will require a paradigm shift in how security is designed for M2M applications, devices and wireless communications technologies.