# Security Issues in IoT-Based Wireless Sensor Networks: Classifications and Solutions
###### Abstract  
In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has experienced considerable developments and has played an important role in various domains such as industry, agriculture, healthcare, transportation, and environment, especially for smart cities. Along with that, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are considered to be important components of the IoT system (WSN-IoT) to create smart applications and automate processes. As the number of connected IoT devices increases, privacy and security issues become more complicated due to their external working environments and limited resources. Hence, solutions need to be updated to ensure that data and user privacy are protected from threats and attacks. To support the safety and reliability of such systems, in this paper, security issues in the WSN-IoT are addressed and classified as identifying security challenges and requirements for different kinds of attacks in either WSNs or IoT systems. In addition, security solutions corresponding to different types of attacks are provided, analyzed, and evaluated. We provide different comparisons and classifications based on specific goals and applications that hopefully can suggest suitable solutions for specific purposes in practical. We also suggest some research directions to support new security mechanisms. internet of things (IoT); wireless sensor network (WSN); security; privacy; attacks; WSN-IoT 29 April 20251 vulnerabilities [2]. A wireless sensor network (WSN) is defined as a collection of resources in which sensor nodes collect environmental data, process the outputs into a structured data set, and finally send the data over a wireless media to destination terminals. The sensing data acquired from various types of sensors, including flow, temperature, pressure, magnitude, level, etc., serve as the input sources. Compared to wired networks which have a robust architecture, wireless networks are often considered weak and vulnerable against adversaries due to their open nature [3]. In the context of the IoT, WSN and IoT are integrated (WSN-IoT) to build more powerful, flexible decision-making systems in which WSNs constitute the backbone of the IoT, providing sensing and data collection infrastructure, while the IoT provides the ability to connect and manage smart devices [4]. WSN-IoT networks increase the efficiency of data monitoring and analysis, ensuring information transmission between smart devices [5]. In recent years, studies and practical works with WSNs based on IoT platforms have been widely developed in many fields such as industry, agriculture, smart cities, healthcare, transportation, and environment [6; 7; 8]. However, such networks are vulnerable to attacks due to their unique characteristics such as large scale, self-organization, dynamic structure, and limited resources [9]. The dense deployment of WSNs in unsupervised environments makes sensor nodes vulnerable to attacks [10]. In WSN-IoT, security is an important aspect to ensure the safety and reliability of the system. WSN-IoT plays an important role in collecting, transmitting, and processing data from various types of sensors scattered in the environment, including sensitive information on medical records, environmental conditions, and location data [11; 12]. The attacks entail harmful endeavors to take advantage of weaknesses in devices linked to the network, with the possibility of achieving unauthorized access, data theft, or operational disturbances. Therefore, security becomes a top priority to prevent unauthorized access and protect privacy. Implementing security measures not only prevents common types of cyber-attacks but also ensures that data is exchanged and stored securely [12]. In addition, security techniques also aim to support the optimization of energy usage in sensor devices, efficient resource management, and ensure the system availability.