A security policy language for wireless sensor networks

• Published in: The Journal of systems and software Vol. 82; no. 1; pp. 101 - 111
• Main Authors: Marsh, David W., Baldwin, Rusty O., Mullins, Barry E., Mills, Robert F., Grimaila, Michael R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Inc 2009; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Subjects: Authentication; Computer information security; Computer programs; Data integrity; Data security; Network security; Networks; Policies; Programming languages; Security policy; Security policy composition; Sensors; Software; Specifications; Studies; Wireless networks; Wireless sensor network; Wireless sensor network; Security policy composition; Data security; Security policy
• ISSN: 0164-1212; 1873-1228
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2008.05.010

Authenticated computer system users are only authorized to access certain data within the system. In the future, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) will need to restrict access to data as well. To date, WSN security has largely been based on encryption and authentication schemes. The WSN Authorization Specification Language (WASL) is a mechanism-independent composable WSN policy language that can specify arbitrary and composable security policies that are able to span and integrate multiple WSN policies. Using WASL, a multi-level security policy for a 1000 node network requires only 60
bytes of memory per node.