Security Enhanced WISPs: Implementation Challenges

In this chapter we motivate the need for security in passive sensors. The powerful Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) opens the field for new applications, which may raise the subject of privacy. We show that not only privacy requires security but new use cases are possible when sensors can protect their data. Our implementation of the Advanced Encryption Standard shows that state-of-the-art cryptography can be computed on the WISP without noticeable performance reduction. In addition, we show how encryption can be integrated into the WISP protocol without disturbing the communication of WISPs transmitting unencrypted data. Additionally, we illustrate the threat of side-channel analysis and provide evidence about the feasibility of these attacks on the WISP.