International Journal of Computer Science Issues

More than a traditional journal...

AbstractSybil attacks present a unique threat in the context of Mobile Social Networks and the Internet of Things. Existing research activity in this field focuses on developing novel detection techniques or improving existing ones, but there is a paucity of knowledge about the current types of Sybil attacks and their countermeasures. The purpose of this paper is to explore the different types of Sybil attacks and potential countermeasures. An extensive literature review is conducted to analyze Sybil attacks and classify the defense methods and techniques. The findings show that the common Sybil attacks in MSN and IoT can be categorized into three orthogonal dimensions that represent distinct attack characteristics: direct and indirect communication attacks; fabricated and stolen identity attacks; and simultaneous and non-simultaneous attacks. In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Sybil attacks can be categorized further into four types depending on the protocols that they target: routing attacks, distribution storage attacks, data aggregation attacks, and resource allocation attacks. The defense mechanisms fall into four broad categories: graph-based methods, Machine Learning techniques, prevention methods, and manual verification methods