SIREN: A feasible moving target defence framework for securing resource-constrained embedded nodes

Embedded nodes are widely used in several application domains thanks to low-costs and their data acquisition and processing capabilities. In the recent years, particular emphasis was given to pervasive wireless sensor nodes that enabled innovative applications for infrastructure monitoring, crowd-source sensing and mobile cyber-physical infrastructure. Indeed, security is one of the main open challenges to face; available security solutions are not able to cope with new attack scenarios and proactive measures to protect nodes are needed. Techniques aimed at continuously changing a system configuration, recently referred to as moving target defence (MTD), are emerging to improve the security level provided by the system but their feasibility in resource constrained environment should be evaluated. Starting from these considerations, in this paper, we propose a reconfiguration framework for embedded nodes that is able to enhance the performance of available reconfiguration tools and also to enable the MTD approach in battery-supplied wireless sensor nodes. We will illustrate the details of the proposed architecture, named SIREN and we will evaluate the feasibility of the proposed solution. First experimental results will show the great advantages of this proposal against available solutions.Copyright 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.