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Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT

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A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Computer Science & Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 39828

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Junaid Arshad

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Guest Editor

School of Computing and Engineering, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK
Interests: cybersecurity; intrusion detection and response; AI-aided security event processing; Internet of Things security; blockchain; blockchain-based decentralized systems

Prof. Dr. Jonathan Loo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London, UK
Interests: machine learning and AI; image and natural language processing; IoT/cyberphysical system and security; information-centric networking; wireless/mobile communication system

Dr. Omair Shafiq

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Information Technology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Interests: data modeling; big data analytics; services computing; machine learning; cloud computing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Decentralization is a key theme for recent advancements within computing systems, with emerging applications in diverse domains, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous vehicles, supply chain management, and finance. With cutting-edge computing paradigms such as cyberphysical systems (CPS), interaction among multiple different, geographically dispersed entities in an automated manner is critical to their widespread adoption. In order to facilitate such use cases, the collaboration among IoT and distributed ledger technologies (DLT), including blockchains and IOTA, is crucial. However, along with the increased adoption of such technologies, the volume and variety of cyberthreats targeting them has also increased. For instance, IoT botnets are an emerging threat, where Mirai and its variants have been successful in not only compromising a large number of IoT devices but also utilizing these bots to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on critical infrastructures. Furthermore, with the increased adoption of blockchain technology, security and privacy threats to such systems have also increased. A number of threats, such as transaction malleability, balance attack, and data leakage through smart contracts, have successfully been demonstrated by the research community in recent years.

This Special Issue therefore focuses on the challenge of security and privacy within IoTs and DLTs and invites contributions extending the state of the art in this regard. We are specifically interested in contributions which highlight use cases which promote collaboration between IoTs and DLTs and security and privacy issues introduced through such settings.

Dr. Junaid Arshad
Prof. Dr. Jonathan Loo
Dr. Omair Shafiq
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 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

Internet of Things
Distributed ledger technologies
Cyberphysical systems
Security and privacy
Trust
Smart contracts
Blockchain-enabled lightweight architectures
DLT-based Identity and access management
DLT-enabled zero trust

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

21 pages, 821 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Blockchain-Based Authentication Scheme for Collaborative Traffic Light Systems Using Fog Computing

by Sarra Namane, Marwa Ahmim, Aron Kondoro and Imed Ben Dhaou

Electronics 2023, 12(2), 431; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12020431 - 13 Jan 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2319

Abstract

In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, cybercriminals are targeting critical infrastructures such as traffic light systems and smart grids. A major concern is the security of such systems, which can be broken down into a number of categories, such as the authentication of data collection devices, secure data transmission, and use of the data by authorized and authenticated parties. The majority of research studies in the literature have largely focused on data integrity and user authentication. So far, no published work has addressed the security of a traffic light system from data collection to data access. Furthermore, it is evident that the conventional cloud computing architecture is incapable of analyzing and managing the massive amount of generated data. As a result, the fog computing paradigm combined with blockchain technology may be the best way to ensure data privacy in a decentralized manner while reducing overheads, latency, and maintaining security. This paper presents a blockchain-based authentication scheme named VDAS using the fog computing paradigm. The formal and informal verifications of the proposed solution are presented. The evaluation of the proposed scheme VDAS showed that it has low communication and computation costs compared to existing lightweight authentication techniques. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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24 pages, 2293 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Approach to Reduce Breaches of Aircraft Communication Data

by Shahzaib Tahir, Muhammad Arslan Shahbaz, Hasan Tahir, Muhammad Awais, Fawad Khan, Ruhma Tahir, Saqib Saeed and Abdullah M. Almuhaideb

Electronics 2023, 12(1), 172; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12010172 - 30 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3481

Abstract

Aircraft are complex systems that rely heavily on monitoring and real-time communications with the base station. During aviation and flight operations, diverse data are gathered from different sources, including the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), Flight Data Recorder (FDR), logbook, passenger data, passenger manifest etc. Given the high sensitivity of flight data, it is an attractive target for adversaries which could result in operational, financial and safety related incidents. Communications between aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers are all unencrypted. The data, mainly audio communication files, are placed openly within data centers on the ground stations which could lead to a serious compromise in security and privacy. One may rely on the cloud owing to its on-demand features but to thwart possible attacks, the data need to be encrypted first, giving rise to the issue of conducting search over encrypted data. This research presents a novel approach for data security in aviation industry by introducing a semantic-based searchable encryption scheme over the cloud. The designed system has proven to be extraordinarily effective for semantic-based searchable encryption at the word and the text level. The rigorous security and complexity analysis shows that the proposed solution provides a high level of security and efficiency and can be effectively deployed in the aviation sector. The designed scheme is tested through a real-world aviation dataset collected to demonstrate the significance of this research. The proof of concept proves to be secure, privacy-preserving and lightweight while resisting distinguishability attacks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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26 pages, 3417 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of a Model for Trust Management in the Social Internet of Things

by Mohammed Rizwanullah, Sunil Singh, Rajeev Kumar, Fatma S. Alrayes, Abdullah Alharbi, Mrim M. Alnfiai, Pawan Kumar Chaurasia and Alka Agrawal

Electronics 2023, 12(1), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12010041 - 22 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2089

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved at a revolutionary pace in the last two decades of computer science. It is becoming increasingly fashionable for the IoT to be rebranded as the “Social Internet of Things” (SIoT), and this is drawing the attention of the scientific community. Smart items in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem can locate relevant services based on the social ties between neighbors. As a result, SIoT displays the interplay between various items as a problem in the context of the social IoT ecosystem. Navigating a network can be difficult because of the number of friends and the complexity of social ties. By identifying difficulties with standard SIoT devices’ interaction with social objects, truthful friend computing (TFC) is a new paradigm for tracing such difficulties by utilising a relationship management component to improve network navigability. The concept of trust management can be useful as a strategy during collaborations among social IoT nodes. As a result, the trustor can use a variety of measures to evaluate a smart object’s trustworthiness. Hence, this article demonstrates the need for the trustor to evaluate the extent to which a given metric has contributed to the overall trust score and illustrates profitability when engaging in a transaction with other nodes. With the help of the SIoT, this paper used a unified fuzzy-based computational technique and a multiple-criteria decision-making approach to evaluate the trust weights. The statistical findings show that the computing of “truthful friends” is the biggest challenge for successful SIoT implementation at the initial level. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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33 pages, 14354 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Blockchain-Based Trust and Reputation Management in SIoT

by Sana Alam, Shehnila Zardari and Jawwad Ahmed Shamsi

Electronics 2022, 11(23), 3871; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11233871 - 23 Nov 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3349

Abstract

In the Social Internet of Things (SIoT), trust refers to the decision-making process used by the trustor (Service Requesters (SRs) or Service Consumers (SCs)) to decide whether or not to entrust the trustee (Service Providers (SPs)) with specific services. Trust is the key factor in SIoT domain. The designing of a two-way, two-stage parameterized feedback-based, service-driven, attacks-resistant trust and reputation system for SIoT accompanied by a penalty mechanism for dishonest SPs and SRs is our main contribution that mitigates the trust-related issues occurring during service provisioning and service acquisition amongst various entities (SPs or SRs) and enhances trust amongst them. Our proposed methodology examines a SP’s local trust, global trust, and reputation by taking into account “Social Trust” and “Quality of Service (QoS)” factors”. Two—Stage Parameterized feedback” is incorporated in our proposed strategy to better manage “intention” and “ability” of SRs and provides early identification of suspicious SRs. This feature compels SRs to act honestly and rate the corresponding SPs in a more accurate way. Our recommended paradigm sorts SPs into three SP status lists (White List, Grey List, and Black List) based on reputation values where each list has a threshold with respect to the maximum service fee that can be charged. SPs in White List charge the most per service. SPs in other lists have a lower selection probability. Every feedback updates the SP’s trust and reputation value. Sorting SPs increases resistance against On Off Attack, Discriminatory Attack, Opportunistic Service Attack, and Selective Behavior Attacks. SPs must operate honestly and offer the complete scope of stated services since their reputation value relies on all their global trust values (Tglobal) for various services. Service requests may be accepted or denied by SPs. “Temporarily banned” SRs can only request unblocked services. SRs lose all privileges once on a “permanently banned” list. If local and global trust values differ by more than the threshold, the SR is banned. Our method also provides resistance against Bad Mouthing Attack, Ballot Stuffing Attack. Good Mouthing Attack/Self—Propagating Attack. Experiments indicate our trust and reputation management system recognizes and bans fraudulent SRs. “Dishonest SPs” are “blacklisted,” which affects their reputation, trust, and service charges. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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16 pages, 3480 KiB

Open AccessArticle

SEMRAchain: A Secure Electronic Medical Record Based on Blockchain Technology

by Halima Mhamdi, Manel Ayadi, Amel Ksibi, Amal Al-Rasheed, Ben Othman Soufiene and Sakli Hedi

Electronics 2022, 11(21), 3617; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11213617 - 06 Nov 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2575

Abstract

A medical record is an important part of a patient’s follow-up. It comprises healthcare professionals’ views, prescriptions, analyses, and all information about the patient. Several players, including the patient, the doctor, and the pharmacist, are involved in the process of sharing, and managing this file. Any authorized individual can access the electronic medical record (EMR) from anywhere, and the data are shared among various health service providers. Sharing the EMR requires various conditions, such as security and confidentiality. However, existing medical systems may be exposed to system failure and malicious intrusions, making it difficult to deliver dependable services. Additionally, the features of these systems represent a challenge for centralized access control methods. This paper presents SEMRAchain a system based on Access control (Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)) and a smart contract approach. This fusion enables decentralized, fine-grained, and dynamic access control management for EMR management. Together, blockchain technology as a secure distributed ledger and access control provides such a solution, providing system stakeholders with not just visibility but also trustworthiness, credibility, and immutability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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18 pages, 583 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Schloss: Blockchain-Based System Architecture for Secure Industrial IoT

by Fatemeh Ghovanlooy Ghajar, Axel Sikora and Dominik Welte

Electronics 2022, 11(10), 1629; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11101629 - 20 May 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2140

Abstract

Industrial companies can use blockchain to assist them in resolving their trust and security issues. In this research, we provide a fully distributed blockchain-based architecture for industrial IoT, relying on trust management and reputation to enhance nodes’ trustworthiness. The purpose of this contribution is to introduce our system architecture to show how to secure network access for users with dynamic authorization management. All decisions in the system are made by trustful nodes’ consensus and are fully distributed. The remarkable feature of this system architecture is that the influence of the nodes’ power is lowered depending on their Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS), and the nodes’ significance and authority is determined by their behavior in the network. This impact is based on game theory and an incentive mechanism for reputation between nodes. This system design can be used on legacy machines, which means that security and distributed systems can be put in place at a low cost on industrial systems. While there are no numerical results yet, this work, based on the open questions regarding the majority problem and the proposed solutions based on a game-theoretic mechanism and a trust management system, points to what and how industrial IoT and existing blockchain frameworks that are focusing only on the power of PoW and PoS can be secured more effectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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15 pages, 1057 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water Is a Viable Data Storage Medium: A Security and Privacy Viewpoint

by Shahzaib Tahir, Hasan Tahir, Ruhma Tahir, Muttukrishnan Rajarajan and Haider Abbas

Electronics 2022, 11(5), 818; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11050818 - 05 Mar 2022

Viewed by 6891

Abstract

The security of IoT devices is a major concern that needs to be addressed for their wide adoption. Users are constantly seeking devices that are faster and capable of holding large amounts of data securely. It is purported that water has memory of its own and the ability to retain memory of the substances that are dissolved into it, even after being substantially and serially diluted. It was also observed in the lab setting that the microscopic pattern of water obtained from the same vessel by different people is unique but can easily distinguish those individuals if the same experiment is executed repeatedly. Furthermore, extensive research is already underway that explores the storage of data on water and liquids. This leads to the requirement of taking the security and privacy concerns related to the storage of data on water into consideration, especially when the real-time collection of data related to water through the IoT devices is of interest. Otherwise, the water memory aspect may lead to leakage of the data and, consequently, the data owners identity. Therefore, this article for the first time highlights the security and privacy implications related to water memory and discusses the possible countermeasures to effectively handle these potential threats. This article also presents a framework to securely store sensitive data on water. The proof-of-concept prototype is implemented and tested over a real-world dataset to analyze the feasibility of the proposed framework. The performance analysis yields that the proposed framework can be deployed once data storage on water is widely used. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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21 pages, 3653 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

QoS-Ledger: Smart Contracts and Metaheuristic for Secure Quality-of-Service and Cost-Efficient Scheduling of Medical-Data Processing

by Abdullah Ayub Khan, Zaffar Ahmed Shaikh, Laura Baitenova, Lyailya Mutaliyeva, Nikita Moiseev, Alexey Mikhaylov, Asif Ali Laghari, Sahar Ahmed Idris and Hammam Alshazly

Electronics 2021, 10(24), 3083; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10243083 - 10 Dec 2021

Cited by 51 | Viewed by 3578

Abstract

Quality-of-service (QoS) is the term used to evaluate the overall performance of a service. In healthcare applications, efficient computation of QoS is one of the mandatory requirements during the processing of medical records through smart measurement methods. Medical services often involve the transmission of demanding information. Thus, there are stringent requirements for secure, intelligent, public-network quality-of-service. This paper contributes to three different aspects. First, we propose a novel metaheuristic approach for medical cost-efficient task schedules, where an intelligent scheduler manages the tasks, such as the rate of service schedule, and lists items utilized by users during the data processing and computation through the fog node. Second, the QoS efficient-computation algorithm, which effectively monitors performance according to the indicator (parameter) with the analysis mechanism of quality-of-experience (QoE), has been developed. Third, a framework of blockchain-distributed technology-enabled QoS (QoS-ledger) computation in healthcare applications is proposed in a permissionless public peer-to-peer (P2P) network, which stores medical processed information in a distributed ledger. We have designed and deployed smart contracts for secure medical-data transmission and processing in serverless peering networks and handled overall node-protected interactions and preserved logs in a blockchain distributed ledger. The simulation result shows that QoS is computed on the blockchain public network with transmission power = average of −10 to −17 dBm, jitter = 34 ms, delay = average of 87 to 95 ms, throughput = 185 bytes, duty cycle = 8%, route of delivery and response back variable. Thus, the proposed QoS-ledger is a potential candidate for the computation of quality-of-service that is not limited to e-healthcare distributed applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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22 pages, 59790 KiB

Open AccessArticle

EPS-Ledger: Blockchain Hyperledger Sawtooth-Enabled Distributed Power Systems Chain of Operation and Control Node Privacy and Security

by Abdullah Ayub Khan, Asif Ali Laghari, De-Sheng Liu, Aftab Ahmed Shaikh, Dan-Dan Ma, Chao-Yang Wang and Asif Ali Wagan

Electronics 2021, 10(19), 2395; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10192395 - 30 Sep 2021

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 2943

Abstract

A distributed power system operation and control node privacy and security are attractive research questions that deliver electrical energy systems to the participating stakeholders without being physically connected to the grid system. The increased use of renewable energy in the power grid environment creates serious issues, for example, connectivity, transmission, distribution, control, balancing, and monitoring volatility on both sides. This poses extreme challenges to tackle the entire bidirectional power flow throughout the system. To build distributed monitoring and a secure control operation of node transactions in the real-time system that can manage and execute power exchanging and utilizing, balancing, and maintaining energy power failure. This paper proposed a blockchain Hyperledger Sawtooth enabling a novel and secure distributed energy transmission node in the EPS-ledger network architecture with a robust renewable power infiltration. The paper focuses on a cyber-physical power grid control and monitoring system of renewable energy and protects this distributed network transaction on the blockchain and stores a transparent digital ledger of power. The Hyperledger Sawtooth-enabled architecture allows stakeholders to exchange information related to power operations and control monitoring in a private ledger network architecture and investigate the different activities, preserved in the interplanetary file systems. Furthermore, we design, create, and deploy digital contracts of the cyber–physical energy monitoring system, which allows interaction between participating stakeholders and registration and presents the overall working operations of the proposed architecture through a sequence diagram. The proposed solution delivers integrity, confidentiality, transparency, availability, and control access of the distribution of the power system and maintains an immutable operations and control monitoring ledger by secure blockchain technology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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Review

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29 pages, 956 KiB

Open AccessReview

Blockchain-Based Access Control Techniques for IoT Applications

by Sarra Namane and Imed Ben Dhaou

Electronics 2022, 11(14), 2225; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11142225 - 16 Jul 2022

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 5939

Abstract

The Internet of Things is gaining more importance in the present era of Internet technology. It is considered as one of the most important technologies of everyday life. Moreover, IoT systems are ceaselessly growing with more and more devices. They are scalable, dynamic, and distributed, hence the origin of the crucial security requirements in IoT. One of the most challenging issues that the IoT community must handle recently is how to ensure an access control approach that manages the security requirements of such a system. Traditional access control technologies are not suitable for a large-scale and distributed network structure. Most of them are based on a centralized approach, where the use of a trusted third party (TTP) is obligatory. Furthermore, the emergence of blockchain technology has allowed researchers to come up with a solution for these security issues. This technology is highly used to record access control data. Additionally, it has great potential for managing access control requests. This paper proposed a blockchain-based access control taxonomy according to the access control nature: partially decentralized and fully decentralized. Furthermore, it presents an overview of blockchain-based access control solutions proposed in different IoT applications. Finally, the article analyzes the proposed works according to certain criteria that the authors deem important. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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17 pages, 808 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Layered Approach to Threat Modeling for 5G-Based Systems

by Muhammad Najmul Islam Farooqui, Junaid Arshad and Muhammad Mubashir Khan

Electronics 2022, 11(12), 1819; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11121819 - 08 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2982

Abstract

The rise of 5G networks promises a wide range of cutting-edge services with the aim of achieving high performance and reliability. Cutting-edge applications facilitated by 5G architecture make use of various enabling technologies, which introduce various new and emerging security threats and attacks. Threat modeling is a proactive approach to identify security requirements, as well as potential threats and vulnerabilities, and prioritize remediation methods. In addition, 5G networks are complex and are usually divided into separate layers to foster the understanding and management of different functionalities. The open nature of 5G envisages that multiple vendors and service providers might be working on network deployment and service provisioning; it is therefore necessary to address and categorize the threats at each layer distinctly. This paper presents a threat model for 5G-based systems. It leverages the layered 5G architecture, identifying threat categories and mapping these to corresponding layers. It also analyzes enabling technologies affected by identified threats along with threat actors, entry points, and the impact of threat categories. Through the development of this threat model, we envisage facilitating further research into specific threats and mechanisms to protect against them. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Blockchain/IoT)

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