| An era of computing is rapidly emerging where mobile agents autonomously retrieve and process information from various anchored and mobile sources from a pervasive environment. In this thesis, we have taken a holistic approach to protecting devices themselves and the underlying communication fabric that enables and sustains peer interactions. We address the challenges of trustworthy data management in distributed mobile systems where peers use and compete for access to a shared contention medium relying mostly on collaborative processes to achieve communication and information exchange. Limitations in individual capabilities subject to prevalent physical and energy constraints in the surrounding environment and the need to enhance them, necessitate collaborative interactions amongst peer devices. They do so by dynamically establishing peer-to-peer relationships to perform complex tasks leveraging available resources either shared amongst the peers or those present in the surrounding environment. However, mobile wireless devices lack the conventional protections afforded to their wired counterparts. Most of the conventional security paradigms and protection mechanisms available in wired networks are unsuitable or inapplicable in these open, mobile, and wireless environments. This thesis presents a systematic investigation of how devices can cope with the freedom of others, and mitigate risks by taking an approach of proactive vigilance in monitoring the environment and maintaining reputations. The main contributions of this work are a first of its kind actual implementation of an IPv6 based Intrusion Detection system for Mobile Ad Hoc networks integrated with a secure routing protocol, a data-intensive reputation management system, a policy-based security framework for governing mobile devices, and a framework for analyzing collaborative processes in such environments. |
