Author : Heena Chawla, Hardeep Kaur and Charanvir Kaur

Wireless Sensor Networks consist of a large number of pocket- sized sensors deployed in autonomous manner in the area under surveillance. These sensor networks are used in sensitive, unattended and remote environment. They have a wide range of applications and are used in almost every field like agriculture, industry, public safety and health services. They are used to gain knowledge about various parameters like temperature, vibrations, motion etc. in the area. The cost of establishment and maintenance of these networks is reasonable. These sensor networks face many challenges due to the use of wireless medium for communication which is prone to various types of attacks. There are various issues like energy exhaustion, memory and storage shortage, security attacks. It is very important to safeguard the network from attacks. Attacks result in loss of information and there is a cutback in number of bits transferred per second that is the throughput of the network reduces. This paper discusses the security requirements, security attacks and countermeasures against the attacks.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs); Security requirements and Security attacks

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.6, No.3 (June-2016)