Sensor Security and Beyond
A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Internet of Things".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2026 | Viewed by 10
Special Issue Editors
Interests: IoT security; wireless communication security and privacy
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Sensors are the bedrock of modern cyber-physical systems (CPSs) and the Internet of Things (IoT), serving as the essential bridge between our physical world and the digital domain. Their proliferation in critical infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, medical devices, and smart homes has enabled unprecedented levels of perception, automation, and control. However, this deep integration has also introduced a new and often overlooked attack surface: the physical sensor hardware itself.
Sensors are susceptible to physical-world attacks that exploit their fundamental operating principles. These attacks can manipulate sensor measurements by leveraging unintended hardware behaviors, leading to system failure, data theft, or unsafe operating conditions. The consequences of such exploits—from autonomous vehicle crashes to manipulated medical readings—underscore the urgent need for a deeper understanding of sensor hardware security.
This Special Issue aims to solicit original, high-impact research that explores the fundamentals of sensor hardware vulnerabilities, analyzes their system-level implications, and proposes robust defense mechanisms. We seek to foster a community of researchers dedicated to building a new generation of secure and resilient sensors and CPSs. We invite submissions from both academia and industry that address the "beyond"—moving past isolated attacks to consider the entire lifecycle of sensor security, from design and testing to system integration and defense. We invite the submission of high-quality manuscripts on topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Fundamentals and Formalization of Sensor Vulnerabilities:
- Systematization of knowledge (SoK) on sensor threats.
- Modeling the vulnerabilities arising from unintended sensor behaviors and physical signal interactions.
- Formal methods for analyzing sensor security.
- Novel Physical Attack Vectors and Exploitation:
- Acoustic and ultrasonic signal injection attacks on MEMS sensors.
- Optical and laser-based attacks on both optical and non-optical sensors.
- Radiated and conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) attacks.
- Side-channel attacks and privacy snooping via unintentional sensor emanations.
- System-Level Implications and Security:
- Security analysis of multi-sensor fusion systems against physical attacks.
- Impacts of sensor attacks on closed-loop control systems.
- Vulnerabilities in intelligent (AI/ML-based) perception systems.
- Case studies on sensor security in the automotive, aerospace, medical, and industrial IoT (IIoT) domains.
- Advanced Defense Mechanisms and Countermeasures:
- Component-level hardening (transducer, signal conditioning, power supply).
- Sensor-level defenses, including physical shielding and output randomization.
- System-level defenses, such as anomaly detection, redundancy, and access authentication.
- Novel techniques for data recovery from compromised sensor readings:
- Secure sensor design, testing, and validation.
- Security-aware sensor design principles and practices.
- Methodologies and frameworks for sensor vulnerability testing and validation.
- Packaging and assembly techniques to mitigate physical threats.
Dr. Xiaoyu Ji
Dr. Chen Yan
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- IoT security and privacy
- sensor data security
- embedded system security
- multi-sensor fusion security
- anomaly detection
- cyber-physical systems
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