With the increased deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in location-based services, the need for accurate localization of sensor nodes is gaining importance. Sensor nodes in a WSN localize themselves with the help of anchors that know their own positions. Some anchors may be malicious and provide incorrect information to the sensor nodes. In this case, accurate localization of a sensor node may be severely affected. In this study, we propose a secure and lightweight localization method. In the proposed method, uncertainties in the estimated distance between the anchors and a sensor node are taken into account to improve localization accuracy. That is, we minimize the weighted summation of the residual squares. Simulation results show that our method is very effective for accurate localization of sensor nodes. The proposed method can accurately localize a sensor node in the presence of malicious anchors and it is computationally efficient.

As deployment of wireless ad hoc networks for location-based services increases, accurate localization of mobile nodes is becoming more important. Localization of a mobile node is achieved by estimating its distances from a group of anchor nodes. If some anchors are malicious and colluding, localization accuracy cannot be guaranteed. In this article, we present the security conditions for exact localization in the presence of colluding malicious anchors. We first derive the minimum number of truthful anchors that are required for exact localization in 2-D Euclidean space where some anchors may be collinear. Second, we extend our security condition to 3-D localization where some anchors may be coplanar.