200 Int. J. Sensor Networks, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2017 Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Multipath routing technique for responding to sniffing attacks in wireless multimedia sensor network environment Seongsoo Cho and Jeong Hyun Yi School of Software, Soongsil University, Seoul, 06978, South Korea Email: css3617@gmail.com Email: jhyi@ssu.ac.kr Bhanu Shrestha* Department of Electronics Engineering, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, 01897, South Korea Email: bnu@kw.ac.kr Changho Seo* Department of Applied Mathematics, Kongju National University, Kongju, 32588, South Korea Email: chseo@kongju.ac.kr *Corresponding authors Abstract: As the image sensor modules such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera sensors and digital microphones are developed, security is required such as data storage and transmission in wireless multimedia sensor network technology and application. Data transmitting through existing sensor network routing path has the problem of high vulnerability to information leakage by sniffing attacks. Therefore, the study proposes one of the protection technique from a sniffing attack, which protects from attacking. The proposed technique is based on the movement of risk factors that sets priority of the geographically proximal sensor nodes according to defense readiness condition (DEFCON) and data importance. According to the simulation results, it achieved approximately 5.8% transmission delay time compared with existing sensor network path but the security was confirmed as eavesdropping rate where risk factors can attack and eavesdrop decreased by approximately 18.5%. Keywords: DEFCON; defense readiness condition; CMOS; complementary metal oxide semiconductor; sniffing attack; wavelet transform. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Cho, S., Yi, J.H., Shrestha, B. and Seo, C. (2017) ‘Multipath routing technique for responding to sniffing attacks in wireless multimedia sensor network environment’, Int. J. Sensor Networks, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp.200–207. Biographical notes: Seongsoo Cho received his PhD in 2010 in Electronicl Engineering from Kwangwoon University, South Korea and His current research interests include computer network, wireless sensor network, secuitry image processing and fuzzy. Jeong Hyun Yi received his PhD in Information and Computer Science from University of California, Irvine and his current research interests include mobile security and privacy, IoT security and applied cryptography. Bhanu Shrestha received his BS, MS and PhD in Electronic Engineering from Kwagnwooni University in Seoul, South Korea in 1998, 2004 and 2008, respectively. His current research interests include RFIC/MMIC/IPD, radio congnition applications and wireless sensor network applications. Changho Seo received his BS, MS and PhD from Korea University in Seoul, South Korea in 1990, 1992 and 1996, respectively. His current research interests include cryptology, applied algebra, system security and network security.